Both this summary and the article by Steve Vogel in the Washington Post contains inaccurate information. MARAD did not have a tentative deal to sell four ships for $3.5 million in August 2008. It had high bids to sell the four ships for that amount. When they let the offerors walk away, they did not contact us, one of their pre-qualified ship recyclers who had lower bids on three of the vessels to see if we would honor our bid. They re-offered the four vessels in November. Despite the terrible metal commodity market, we put in sales bids on three of the vessels. MARAD refused to accept the bids. We protested and they ignored the protest. Also, they instituted a new policy of not posting the sales bid offers. They did not inform us that there was one other sales bid on one vessel; from the final contract we assume it was higher than our bid. For the other two vessels, without notifying us, they solicited acquisition bids and ended up paying in excess of $800,000 for two vessels that would have cost them nothing. The other vessel, they let the original offeror from the August bid (sales bid of $450,000) to receive over $1 million to scrap the ship -- two months after the sales bid. Of the 13 vessels that MARAD has offered for sale since November 2008, they have signed sales contracts on five. SOREC has put in sales bids on seven and MARAD has signed zero sales contracts with us. It will not be difficult to get rid of the final vessels if MARAD starts running the ship disposal program in a professional manner. And in most instances, unless the metal commodity markets collapse again, the sales won't even require the nominal subsidy that MARAD sometimes has to offer. But most telling is your final sentence. MARAD is the government agency that manages re-flagging US vessels for other countries. Stay tuned, turns out they have been helping US Flags evade the Toxic Substances Control Act PCB export into commerce ban by reflagging for convenience, even if they know the vessel is to be scrapped. Believe me, the countries that used to buy the old ships -- India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, not to mention China, still do. Sincerely, Polly Parks SOREC pparks@sorec-emr.com