http://informationfarm.blogspot.com/2010/03/kauai-superferry-chronicles.html
Kauai | The Superferry Chronicles
Although most people are not aware of it, the USA has an image which is similar to the scene from Tiananmen Square. Fortunately this David and Goliath event did not end in the loss of life and the citizens were successful.
August 2007—Hawaii—A new Superferry transporting cars and people from island to island was stopped from docking on the island of Kauai and turned back. Residents of the island gathered along the shore to protest, some jumped in the water joining the surfers, kayaks and outrigger canoes in Nawiliwili harbor blocking the huge ship from entering.
Police and SWAT team members mingled with the onshore protesters and Coast Guard boats, one with military personnel manning large 40-caliber guns on deck, threatened the surfers and canoeists. The Coast Guard patrol boat even attempted to pass through the blockade nearly running over unarmed individuals in the water.
The Superferry was a Trojan horse. It was camouflaged as a means of transportation for the residents of Hawaii but the dark secret was that it’s actual use was for hidden military purposes which meant big dollars in future military government contracts for the owners of the Superferry.
The joint high-speed vessel “is a strategic transport vessel designed to support the rapid transport of military troops and equipment in the U.S. and abroad” —statement from the Army Environmental Command.
Hawaii is the center for the largest military command on the Earth—US Pacific Command (USPACOM).
The ferry is really a prototype for warships in potential military clashes with China. The plan is to save money for the Pentagon and the Navy and secure project ownership for its major investor, the former Navy Secretary. The prototype is to be built and launched not as a military ship, but as a civilian ferry.
In secret, military planners in the Pentagon design a company to be eventually run by the former secretary of the Navy and staffed by high ranking ex-military officers. The company operates military vessels disguised as civilian inter-island ferries and eventually reaps vast sums in military contracts. Sadly, this is how modern military officers create enormous wealth and power for themselves after their military careers all the time covering their greed by pontificating that they defending the nation from outside threats.
“The lead investor in the Superferry project (nearly $90 million) and new chair of the board for this ‘local’ ferry project was New York City military financier John Lehman, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the Navy, a leading neocon with a famously aggressive military vision. (The Washington Post quoted him in 1984 as advocating first-strike nuclear strategies.) Lehman is a member of the Project for the New American Century and a 9/11 commissioner, but his great passion has been pushing for a vastly expanded, 600-ship Navy and a stronger US military presence in the Pacific to assuage mounting concerns about China as a future military superpower. After his company, J.F. Lehman, took over the Superferry project, Lehman appointed a new board with a majority of former top military brass. He later hired Adm. Thomas Fargo as CEO. Only four years ago Fargo was the commander of US military operations in the Pacific, answering directly to George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. So the question is this: why on earth would anyone need a board that qualifies as a mini-Pentagon to run a friendly transport for families and papayas between islands?” read the entire article at The Nation
Environmentalists called for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its Hawaii equivalent (HEPA) but the Hawaii Superferry Company, with strong support from Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, refused.
When the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling demanded the boat suspend operations until it completed an EIS, Governor Lingle and Lehman’s Superferry company continued operations.
To allow the Superferry to operate in Hawaii without an Environmental Impact Statement and to sell the idea to the public, the help of the Governor was required. Most likely, members of the military and powerful interests offered Governor Lingle secret backroom deals which may include national political office. She later appeared at the Republican convention introducing vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. (A case of one unknown governor introducing another unknown governor.)
Governor Lingle’s actions regarding the ferry, such as defying the Hawaii Supreme Court, getting the legislature to authorize a $40 million loan to the Superferry company and telling citizens of Kauai that if they protested within the ‘security zone’ established by Homeland security law they “would be charged under new anti-terrorism laws that carry prison terms up to five years and/or a $10,000 fine”, indicate that she felt she had powerful backing.
The Superferry company received $140 million in federal government guaranteed loans. If the ferry turnes out to be a commercial failure its owners are off the hook and the taxpayers will repay the loan. In the twisted logic of today’s world, the federal loan specifically prohibits an EIS as part of the loan agreement even though the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires it.
Presently, the Superferry has stopped all service in Hawaii and posted the following on its website which comfirms it’s true military purpose.
For the present time, the Hawaii Superferry will no longer offer service in Hawaii due to a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that struck down a new law allowing service without an Environmental Impact Report.
The Alakai will be used for other commercial service or military use in the future until an EIS has been successfully obtained (if this is possible.)
Leave a Reply