MORE ON FCI CONSTRUCTORS
A company that is so fortuitous as to receive major contracts in California using foreign steel bears closer scrutiny. Who exactly is FCI Constructors? They are actually foreign-owned as well. The use of subsidiaries, DBAs (Doing Business As), etc. are techniques designed to obfuscate the trail of ownership and persons who are actually pulling the strings. FCI is actually owned by a Dutch company called Hollandsche Beton Groep, or HBG. The following chart lists all of HBG's subsidiaries doing business in the U.S. (I am omitting their Canadian subsidiary, KWH Constructors, which also does work in the northwest U.S.):
HBG
_____________________________________|__________________________________________
| | | | | | |
Flatiron Flatiron Somerset FCI FCI Misener Interbeton
Structures Structures Engineering Constructors Constructors Marine
Design/Build North South Constructors
Obviously HBG is not some fly-by-night corporation. But to further document their size, I was able to track down the following contracts for infrastructure projects that they either received by themselves or in conjunction with other companies. Flatiron received the following:
Construction
Project Location Date Contract Value
Bath Woolwich Bridge Maine 7/00 $46,600,000
Road Project Maine 8/98 28,591,520
Multiple Contracts Colorado 8/87-1/94 77,000,000
I-90 Massachusetts 1/01 157,958,000
South Boston Interchange Massachusetts 1/02 179,531,211
Eastern Toll Road California NA 712,600,000
Foothill Toll Road California NA 900,000,000
Benicia Martinez Bridge California 8/01 89,801,000
Route 5 California 12/00 58,467,125
University Light Rail Utah NA 72,000,000
Route 44 New Mexico NA 420,000,000
Carolina Bays Parkway South Carolina NA 230,000,000
Cooper River Bridge South Carolina 7/02 631,000,000
Total $3,603,548,856
FCI received the following:
Project Location Date Contract Value
Carquinez Bridge California NA $187,837,346
Widen Freeway in Orange Co. California 3/02 24,381,708
Widen Freeway in Orange Co. California 3/02 66,149,421
Widen Freeway in Orange Co. California 10/99 18,511,513
Widen Freeway in Orange Co. California 3/01 41,359,503
Rehabilitate Road in Sante Fe Springs California 12/98 16,336,008
Construct Bridge in LA Co. California 1/95 14,942,768
Widen Road in LA & Ventura Cos. California 5/97 21,860,565
Seismic retrofit to Benicia Martinez Bridge California 3/02 108,740,834
Construct Interchange in Orange Co. California 4/01 16,111,536
Widen Freeway in LA Co. California 2/00 29,979,059
Construct Freeway in San Diego Co. California 3/02 49,089,485
Modify Route 580/680 in Alameda Co. California 3/02 49,506,058
Widen Freeway in Merced Co. California 3/02 24,081,260
Seismic Retrofit in San Francisco California 3/02 19,435,013
Contra Costa & Solano Cos. California 3/02 139,427,189
Drainage in Santa Clara Co. California 9/01 5,175,808
New Freeway in LA & San Bernardino Cos. California 3/02 26,525,484
Rebuild Lanes in Santa Clara Co. California 3/02 4,526,471
I-5 Bridge @ San Mateo Cr. California 3/02 1,665,135
Pavement Rehab. in Riverside Co. California 3/02 1,413,406
Detention Basin in Claremont California 3/02 911,180
Freeway in LA Co. California 3/02 39,306,661
Reconstruct Highway in Merced Co. California 3/02 4,526,471
Total $911,799,882
Total of both companies = $4,515,348,738 (That's $4.5 billion)
(The above dates are based on last voucher payment I found or estimate of construction beginning. Contract value may be total contract value or amount paid out thus far.)
THE DESIGN/BUILD CONCEPT
Design/Build - Public-Private Partnership from the Olympians
You may notice the name of one of the above companies, Flatiron Structures Design/Build, and wonder what "design/build" means. You will see it throughout this investigation so I need to take a moment to explain the concept. This relatively new method of letting government contracts became popular during the Clinton administration. This is when a contract is awarded to whomever a government or company chooses to design and build a project. This amounts to a public-private partnership between the government and the private contractor.
The concept of public-private partnerships was promulgated by the UN and Olympian Prince Charles (Veon, 1998). The excuse for these partnerships is to enforce so-called "sustainable development," which is part of Agenda 21. The goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate the control of state and federal governments, thereby placing local governments under direct UN control. Ms. Veon is an independent businesswoman whom God prospered and chose to investigate the Olympians' environmental movement, and she has attended numerous global environmental meetings such as the Rio Earth Summit, etc. She states in her book (1998):
"In 1993, the World Bank established a division for sustainable development. The World Bank has since added four other dimensions for monitoring the assets of the world through sustainable development. They are:
"1. Natural capital-the minerals of the earth, water, forests, anything natural.
"2. Manufactured capital-anything built, such as roads, buildings, homes, etc.
"3. Human capital-every living person on the earth, including their age, health, experience, education, and ability to work.
"4. Social capital-how people think, that is, politically correct thinking.
"The World Bank and the IMF for the most part have developed...how to measure each of these in every country, including the United States...The vehicle to enforce the concept of sustainable development is the public-private partnership...[T]his interconnectedness...mirrors [Prince] Charles's (sic) holistic philosophy and that of the environmental agenda. The government, private business, and civil society are one...
"Through public-private partnerships, the balance of power shifts from the people to the partner who has the most money. This is, and always will be, man's way of acquiring power. As the power shifts to the deepest pockets (the corporation), we have then moved into fascism-rule by big (reinvented) government and big business.
"All across America, public-private partnerships are being established that solidify the government/corporation as ruler...In summary, the word 'sustainable' represents 'control,' which means different laws are needed to change and transcend national laws...As Bill Clinton said in his 1997 inaugural address... 'with a new vision of government...we will sustain America's journey.'"
The above concepts, promoting the rise of corporate/government fascist control, is exactly what Al Gore meant during his presidential campaign by "reinventing government."
Design/Build Permits Construction Fraud
The design/build method provides an easy opportunity for construction fraud. Under the design/build concept the quality of construction and materials is not monitored by an unbiased party, but rather by the design/build subcontractor that was selected by the contractor. It is like letting the Russians or Chinese guard Los Alamos, because the same entity is basically designing and then constructing the project. Furthermore, depending on how funding was set up, often no citizens' groups can submit a FOIA request because the state is not involved, and private companies are not required by law to answer FOIA requests. This is a way to veil a project in secrecy.
I should also mention that the normal process of choosing low bidder is no guarantee of a fair selection procedure. I spoke with an auditor who had successfully investigated bid collusion only because one of the participants turned states evidence. The auditor had consulted his local Federal District Attorney, who advised him that collusion is impossible to prove unless one of the parties decides to talk. It is just simply too easy for contractors to get together and decide who will win and split the proceeds under the table, or trade off contracts so no money changes hands.
Normally a state transportation agency would test samples of contractors' construction materials, such as reinforcing bar, bolts, concrete, etc. to ensure proper quality control. For example, if a piece of rebar is not up to specs, the entire lot it came from would be discarded, which drives up the contractor's construction costs but provides an incentive to the contractor to use quality materials. Instead, with the design/build method of construction, the contractor has an obvious economic incentive to use and not reject inferior materials. Of course, the contractor may hire an engineering consulting firm to lend an air of respectability to the monitoring of the construction, but just how honest will the consulting engineers be, knowing that the contractor can cancel their contract (in more ways than one) if they're too honest?
Even when a state is testing the materials, the problem with using cheap, foreign steel is that the range in quality is greater. (This may be on purpose in an effort to sabotage our infrastructure.) This is a simplified example, but suppose you have a lot (i.e. a group that was manufactured together) of grade 60, #9 domestic reinforcing bar you're testing which must have minimum of 90,000 psi (these are ASTI [Am. Soc. for Testing & Materials] specs. commonly used). Suppose that historically (with domestic steel) it has been determined that there should be a mean tensile strength of approximately X with a standard deviation of Y. You then have a statistical confidence level that tells you that testing Z number of pieces randomly selected from the lot makes you 95% confident that the entire lot is suitable for use in construction, if all the pieces pass your tests. But then suppose you later have to test inferior foreign steel rebar in the same class but which has a higher standard deviation (i.e. it has a wider variation in quality). Statistically you would have to test more pieces to reach the same 95% level of confidence, but not according to the testing regulations. Therefore in reality, even though the pieces you randomly selected passed your tests, it is more likely that some of the pieces in the lot are not of sufficient quality for use in construction. Those pieces will now be used in your bridge, and somewhere down the road may cause its collapse, especially during an earthquake.
The bottom line is, the wider the variability of the steel that you are using, the more worthless your tests are. You could theoretically cut a piece off of each piece of rebar to test, but that would be economically impracticable (and still wouldn't address the possibility of weak spots in a single bar). The situation is even worse with nuts and bolts, because their tests are destructive. You simply can't test each piece of material used in highway construction, and if materials are manufactured under poor of quality control from suspicious sources to begin with, they can't be trusted.
DAVIS DEFENDS FOREIGN STEEL
As previously mentioned, California has embarked upon an earthquake retrofit program that will be estimated to cost $2.6 billion, and much of the steel already used has been from foreign sources. Federal Buy America regulations were avoided because the contracts are funded with state money. After the inferior bolts were rejected, the California state legislature passed a bill, A 214, designed to prevent state money being used to purchase foreign steel. Gov. Gray Davis vetoed the bill because he said it violated regulations of the WTO agreement. Here is a state governor handing over state sovereignty to an international organization. But Davis even publicly admitted that much of the steel used in state projects was foreign steel of "questionable quality" which didn't meet state safety standards in some bridges and other structures.
Davis Mandates "Pre-Qualification" of Bidders
Hiding behind another buzzword you will hear again, Davis said that in order to protect the public from inferior steel, he would mandate "pre-qualification" of bidders, which simply means that prospective bidders are approved only one time. Usually this means simply filling out a form and submitting it to the state. If a state agency approves a company, it means that they are considered reliable and eligible to do work, and that they won't face detailed scrutiny in the future. The only quality control exists on paper. Thus, "pre-qualification" is just more bureaucratic language to give a company the opportunity to keep on using inferior materials.
THE CHINA CONNECTION
China is the world's largest producer of crude steel, but imports more finished steel than they export because of their inability to produce high quality steel (Hogan, 1999). Their iron ore deposits are also notoriously low grade. Let's now turn our attention to China and the source of some this inferior foreign steel.
Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery
In perhaps the most widely publicized case, the Carquinez bridge retrofit, the Chinese company Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (SZPM) was the manufacturer. The name "Zhenhua" casts some light on the true motivations of the company. In Mandarin Chinese, "Zhen" means "to teach" and "hua" means transformation; thus "Zhenhua" means "to teach transformation." As in Communism, perhaps? The Chinese army controls more than 2,000 front companies in America (Newsmax, 4/16/02). In reality, SZPM appears to be a front for the Peoples Liberation Army. You may recall the incident wherein Clinton was trying to give the naval base at Long Beach to the Chinese company China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) for their use as a port. COSCO is an out-and-out front for the Chinese government. SZPM was contracted out by COSCO to manufacture six container cranes for the port. They were considered to be the biggest container cranes in the world and the contract was valued at US$31.6 million. It would be a pretty safe bet to say that since COSCO is a Chinese front, so is SZPM.
COSCO has "business ventures" with the Hutchison Whampoa subsidiary, Hutchison International Terminals (HIT). Hutchison Whampoa is the world's largest port operator with 136 ports worldwide. The chairman is the richest man in China, Li Ka-Shing, who has strong connections to the Chinese Communist government. I have read unconfirmed reports that Li's mother was British. Li has the right of first refusal on all People's Republic of China (PRC) ports south of the Yangtze River, including Shanghai. COSCO just reached an agreement with the Massachusetts Port Authority (funny, that's the same agency in charge of security at Logan International Airport, from whence the two WTC terrorist flights departed) to begin a weekly shipping service between Shanghai and Boston, beginning in 2002. Edward Timperlake, co-author of Year of the Rat, said that "COSCO is the merchant marine arm of the PLA Navy. If the Chinese military ever mobilized troops for action against Taiwan, COSCO would be part of the operation."
I found two different origins of SZPM. The company was started in 1992, but one source said it was set up jointly between Shanghai Port Machinery and Hong Kong Zhenghua Shareholding Company. Another source said it was not Hong Kong Zhenghua Shareholding Company as a partner, but instead Hong Kong Zhenhua Engineering Corp. That's one good way to confuse the trail, but regardless the company definitely has connections to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the largest investor in Shanghai's Pudong area where SZPM is located.
The presence of Hong Kong is significant for several reasons, but primarily it means the British/Olympians are most likely secret investors in SZPM. Remember, the British controlled Hong Kong until they recently gave it back to China. Dr. John Coleman, former British intelligence expert, said
"In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank is the cock that crows on top of the dung heap. No one can do anything in that Crown Colony without them knowing about it and giving the nod. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank together with the noble blue-blood aristocrats who ran the opium wars on China turned Hong Kong from a rock to what it is today...Let it not be imagined that the Hong Shang Bank is an entity on its own. Quite the contrary is true. It is run by the highest-ranking British blue-bloods through its London Committee and the London Committee is interlocked with membership in the RIIA [Royal Institute of International Affairs] through such names as Swire, Turner, Jardine Matheson, and Keswicki; not to mention the British Royal Families' control of major Canadian Banks...I also want to underline the connection between the Royal Institute and the Hong Kong gold, diamond, and drug trade. The House Foreign Affairs Committee has concluded that the Hong Kong government has been lax in policing this trade. Smuggling into Hong Kong is impossible to control because it is a free port and is easily accessible. Most goods coming into Hong Kong are in sealed containers. They are seldom opened."
Thus, if SZPM was funded by Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank must have either been involved or given their approval. I tried to establish a link between the two but there is only so much information that China is going to let out. Yet we can still read between the lines. From Dr. Coleman's quote above, it is easy to see why China is interesting in establishing control of shipping and ports. They can smuggle drugs, weapons, even terrorists into America to destroy our society. As an example of what they are doing, in 10/97, 11/97 and 12/98, U.S. Customs seized a Chinese ship each month at either Long Beach or Oakland ports, bound for Colombia with cargos of potassium permanganate, a precursor for cocaine manufacture. The chemical can only be obtained from industrialized countries and is not made in South America.
China now controls the Panama and Suez Canals. They have a presence in 136 ports worldwide, e.g. the Bahamas, Vancouver, and are now trying to get a foothold in Tampa Bay. This site will put them adjacent to the U.S. Central Command HQ (which directs middle east military operations), where they can easily spy on our military operations there. They are also trying to get into Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC. (more on this later).
Recently, after the 9/11 attacks, Russia canceled their lease for their spying base in Lourdes, Cuba, which was used to spy on the U.S. Castro needed money so he leased another location in Bejucal to the Chinese, to allow them to spy on America now.
With such a global control of ports, they can easily launder terrorist materials through other countries. Over 5,000 containers go missing each year in the U.S. Fifty thousand containers arrive in the U.S. each day, and only 2% of them are inspected by U.S. Customs officials. This was one of China's goals with the Long Beach Port acquisition-to smuggle contraband to LA street gangs to accelerate the lawlessness of America. But the trail doesn't end with the Chinese because they are partners with the British/Olympians, who are also out to destroy America, as I will demonstrate.
It is interesting to examine some other clients of SZPM. They sold a $5.6 million crane to the Port of Wilmington. (Which raises the question: how can they economically construct, and then ship a huge crane all the way to the other side of America?) Oakland placed two different orders in one year (1999) from SZPM. They bought ten cranes for US$60 million and then another 6 cranes for US$36 million. That same year, SZPM built nine cranes for the Amsterdam Port Authority, with an option for three more. They also supplied eight container cranes to Germany, which was the first time a Chinese and also an Asian company was allowed to export port machinery to Germany. SZPM has also received orders from Oman, Sudan and Canada. How did this obscure Chinese company suddenly have all these orders fall into their lap, from all over the world? How can they economically manufacture and ship giant cranes across the seven seas? It sounds like they are getting some help from the inside, which the Olympians could supply. In addition, it has been alleged that some of their steel is manufactured with slave prison labor, not in factories like in the West. It would be virtually impossible for any legitimate company to compete with them, and for them to match our quality.
Chinese Parts on American Aircraft
Interestingly, Shanghai is a city that has seen a virtual overnight explosive growth, most of which "coincidentally" occurred during the Clinton administration. Shanghai has benefited greatly from U.S. taxpayer subsidies and trade incentives, along with private investment by "American" companies; for example, General Motors has a Buick plant there. The quality of anything produced in China is suspect, however. You may recall the Alaska Air Flight 261, an MD-83 airliner, which crashed in January 2000. The NTSB said that the cause of this crash was a defective horizontal stabilizer manufactured in China. A massive agreement was reached between McDonnell Douglas and Shanghai Aviation Industrial Corp. (SAIC) to make all MD-80 and MD-90 horizontal stabilizers. The NTSB has found similar problems in 23 more aircraft. It should be pointed out that for these aircraft, SAIC is the only source for some parts, such as the horizontal stabilizer. SAIC is actually Shanghai Aviation Industrial Group, a state-owned consortium consisting of 14 companies/organizations. Read their homepage-any company that cannot construct a grammatically-correct sentence in English has no business constructing our parts. On October 3-4, 1999, trial flights were said to be conducted of the first MD-90 aircraft produced there. SAIC says:
"The American pilot Billings, who undertook the task of this trial flights [sic], said: 'Before I came to China, some friends of mine have worried [sic] over me. But I'm self-confident. I have flown the great majority of MD-80 aircrafts [sic] that produced [sic] in Shanghai, including the first shipset. I believe China and have perfect (?) confidence in Shanghai's aero manufacture [sic] technique. This MD-90 aircraft whom [sic] I fly [sic] today has so few troubles (?) that such situation [sic] is really seldom.[sic] I ought to (?) congratulate SAIC on this success.'"
Now, does that sound made up or what?
From September 23-29, 1999 the FAA implemented the fifth special Aircraft Certification System Evaluation Program (ACSEP) Audit of SAIC, and then inspected the first MD-90 aircraft before its trial flight. The purpose of ACSEP is to "determine if FAA production approval holders, their priority parts suppliers, and delegated facilities are complying with applicable regulations and the procedures established to meet these regulations." Just a few months after this fifth FAA inspection 88 Americans were dead because of faulty Chinese parts. There are only perhaps three possible explanations for this failure by our government to prevent this tragedy. One, the FAA inspectors were bought off, knowing the parts were faulty; 2) the FAA inspectors had a poor inspection program; or 3) the Chinese know how to sabotage parts without our inspectors detecting it. I have found a way they could accomplish the latter, which I will elaborate upon later.
Another interesting point is that Boeing, which bought McDonnell Douglas, made this agreement with the Chinese through their Long Beach Division. Of course, this is the same city whose port the Chinese tried to gain control over to establish a beachhead into America. It appears that there are a lot of Chicom sympathizers in Long Beach.
Along these same lines, CATIC, a Chinese military manufacturing company, tried to buy equipment from McDonnell Douglas that was illegal for export. In 1993 CATIC sent a letter to MD saying that if export controls were not removed, they would cancel their order for buying some more MD-80 and MD-90 aircraft. Suddenly the Clinton administration began to eliminate export controls on sensitive military items. This is a pattern of corruption repeated over and over by Clinton.
Furthermore, now many of our military parts are made in China. Al Martin, former Iran-Contra insider, says that according to internal Department of Defense records, one in five of our helicopters doesn't work because the spare parts don't work. A GAO report has recently confirmed Martin's testimony, saying that America has a record number of defective spare parts. The reason the spare parts don't work is because they are made in China. Martin points out that the excuse given has always been Chinese incompetence, but that this is no longer valid. It is nothing less than undeclared war upon America. Plus, it is an easy way for the Clinton administration to transfer more technology to China, because they get our schematics to build the parts. Eventually, China will have enough schematics for different parts to build the entire weapon, but the military can still say, "We didn't tell them how to build the weapon."
In spite of all of the above, on January 25, 1999 the International Council of the Aerospace Industries Association (an oxymoron-AIA supposedly represents the American aerospace industry) posted an editorial on the Internet urging the U.S. to end all Buy America provisions immediately. This proves that they obviously don't have America's best interests at heart.
California Invests Retirement Funds in Chinese Military Fronts
The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has been purchasing stock in overseas companies tied to Chinese military and intelligence operations. According to an article in Investor's Business Daily (7/27/00), and based on information in the Cox Report, CalPERS bought stock in Cosco Pacific Ltd., China Resources Enterprises, Citic Pacific Ltd. and Citic Ka Wah Bank. The head of CalPERS defended their investments, saying the article represented "McCarthyism at its worst." He was refuted by conservative members of the legislature, including Sen. Raymond Haynes (R-Riverside), who cited a 1998 investigative article in the South China Morning Post which identified almost 200 Hong Kong companies tied to the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). As of December 1999, CalPERS had invested over $750 million in 70 companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Comstock's Business, 6/00).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Coleman, John. The Committee of 300. 1997.
Hogan, W.T. The Steel Industry of China: Its Present Status and Future Potential. 1999.
Quigley, C. The Anglo-American Establishment. 1981.
Sutton, A.C. The Best Enemy Money Can Buy. 1986.
Veon, J. Prince Charles: the Sustainability Prince. 1998.
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