Idiot, definitely. 10 minutes on the internet would have clued anybody in that these folks are not the kinds of folks you welcome with open arms. These are some folks that you don't want to do business with, period. The Brits and others were
sounding the alarm in 2006 over security concerns.
In
August of 2010, Republican Senators were writing the heads of federal agencies and asking for assessments in regards to Huawei working with Sprint:
eight Republican U.S. Senators, led by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), have written to top Obama Administration officials, expressly stating their concern over the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei's proposed bid to sell equipment to Sprint-Nextel.
"We are concerned that Huawei's position as a supplier of Sprint Nextel could create substantial risk for U.S. companies and possibly undermine U.S. national security," they stated in the letters, which were sent to the likes of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, and others.
The group of senators -- Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Kyl -- link Huawei's past sales to Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, while highlighting its current dealings with Iran. Huawei's relationship with the Iranian military should prohibit it from doing business with the U.S., they argue, because of the imposed sanctions on that country.
"Most troubling," though, are Huawei's "direct ties" to the Chinese military, the senators wrote. "At worst, Huawei's becoming a major supplier of Sprint Nextel could present a case of a company, acting at the direction of and funded by the Chinese military, taking a critical place in the supply chain of the U.S. military, law enforcement and private sector," the senators wrote.
How in the $#^%^$ Hell could Perry miss that? Not even 10 minutes on the internet and Perry could have found out that this company was bad news - just a few months before Perry had the gall to say "
What a really interesting man he is. Rather straight-spoken. If you didn’t know any better, you'd say he grew up out in West Texas", there are US Senators publicly raising serious concerns about them.
By the way, Dick Gephardt was a lobbyist for this company.