“China is in control of the Panama Canal,” according to Rep. Allen West (R-FL), who delivered the shocking news last week in a Florida town hall. The freshman congressman, claiming, “You know, there is some serious threats to our country,” also warned of a “threat” coming from south of our border.
“I had the opportunity to go down to the United States southern command which is headquartered in Miami, Florida,” the Sarah Palin and Tea Party-supported Congressman said. “There is a huge threat coming up out of South America through Central America, through Mexico, and into the United States. Iran is in South America. Hezbollah is in South America. I already talked about how China is in control of the Panama Canal. And even about 50 miles away from here in the Bahamas, building a port there.”
The good folks at Think Progress, who reported on this and whom we can thank for the video, write, “The notion that China controls the Panama Canal is patently false. The United States handed control of the canal over to Panama on December 31, 1999 and it has remained in Panamanian hands ever since. This false claim was even debunked by the conservative news outlet Newsmax back in 2006. In fact, rather than owning the Panama Canal, China is currently proposing a rival railroad in Colombia that would allow goods to bypass the canal.
“West is certainly no stranger to outlandish statements. He made a name for himself over the past year with comments like endorsing the censorship of news agencies that “enabled†Wikileaks, arguing that nobody is getting laid off in Washington D.C., saying that liberal women are “neutering American men,†and calling President Obama a “low level Socialist agitator,” writes Scott Keyes at Think Progress.
“I gotta tell you something: if you support Medicare the way it is now, you can kiss the United States of America goodbye,” said West on April 27 at the same Florida town hall.
Last month, West, who recently accused President Obama of acting with ‘”third world dictator-like arrogance,” made a statement that earned him the ire of a great many groups. He began to talk about America through the lens of Ancient Sparta, the much-heralded Greek city-state that inspired the bloody movie, “300.”
“We need you to come in and lock shields, and strengthen up the men who are going to fight for you. To let these other women know on the other side — these planned Parenthood women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women that have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness — to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient.â€
That statement prompted a local Florida paper to write, “Congressman Allen West Not Getting Any Less Crazy,” asking, “Be more like Sparta, eh, Mr. West?”
“Do you know who else praised Sparta and told his people to be more like them?
“Yes, of course it was Adolf Hitler, who likened his Nazi soldiers to Spartans and the Russians as the Helots. But then, what warmonger wouldn’t look to the Spartans as a shining example of what a society should look like?
“Hitler also admired the Spartans’ ‘racial superiority’ and another practice of strong Spartan women — the systematic murder of its weak and deformed children.”
West, 50, has some other disturbing events in his past. In 2004 he retired from the military after violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including the article on assault, and was fined $5,000.
“And if ballots don’t work, bullets will,” is the statement made in 2010 by Joyce Kaufman, a controversial Florida radio host who had advocated for the hanging of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. West hired Kaufman to be his chief of staff, but she was essentially forced to resign after public outrage became too great. West reportedly blamed the Left of racism and misogyny as reasons for Kaufman’s resignation.
West, 50, despite being on the House Committee on Armed Services, last year said of gay men and lesbians in the military, “unfortunately, they are serving.” He delivered the keynote speech at this year’s CPAC.
West, who had said, “[t]he truth is not subjective,” as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a candidate forum, “I had a Top Secret/Security Compartmented Information classification, that is the highest you can have in the United States Army. You don’t get a security classification like that if you have financial issues like that. I still retain a Secret security clearance. And I tell you, if you look at the application for a security clearance, I have a clearance that even the president of the United States cannot obtain because of my background.”
This statement earned his the “Pants on Fire” award from the non-partisan PolitiFact, which writes,
“West is saying that he had a higher security clearance than someone occupying the office of president of the United States. Even if you assume that he was referring to the period in which West held a TS/SCI, our experts say he’s wrong.
“The president is the one who established the security clearance system by executive order,” said Steven Aftergood, a national security and intelligence specialist with the Federation of American Scientists. “Therefore it is nonsensical to speak of clearances higher than what the president has. As head of the executive branch and commander in chief of the armed forces, there is no information in government that could be denied to the president for security reasons if he determined he needed access to that information.”
“John Pike, the director of globalsecurity.org, agreed. “This is a silly statement,” Pike said. “The only clearance the president needs is the mandate of the people.”
“The statement is even more questionable if West was actually referring to what he says is his current clearance — Secret.
“A Secret security clearance is the most commonly held security clearance,” Aftergood said. “Almost anyone without a criminal record or serious financial difficulties can get such a clearance if their employment requires it.”
The question becomes, why is West, clearly someone with a questionable grasp on matters of the utmost importance to the security of the United States, a United States Congressman?
You may not have long to worry. Some, including Glenn Beck, are floating West as the next Republican presidential nominee. With Michele Bachmann as his vice president.
(P.S. Blogger Pam Spaulding has an Allen West v. Rick Santorum “The Stupid It Burns” poll. Vote!)