Posted on 02/21/2006 8:15:32 AM PST by presidio9
The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House. One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.
Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.
The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a company owned by a nation linked to the 9/11 hijackers.
"The more you look at this deal, the more the deal is called into question," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said the deal was rubber-stamped in advance - even before DP World formally agreed to buy London's P&O port company.
Besides operations in New York and Jersey, Dubai would also run port facilities in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore and Miami.
The political fallout over the deal only grows.
"It's particularly troubling that the United States would turn over its port security not only to a foreign company, but a state-owned one," said western New York's Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee. Reynolds is responsible for helping Republicans keep their majority in the House.
Snow's Treasury Department runs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which includes 11 other agencies.
"It always raises flags" when administration officials have ties to a firm, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-S.I.) said, but insisted that stopping the deal was more important.
The Daily News has learned that lawmakers also want to know if a detailed 45-day probe should have been conducted instead of one that lasted no more than 25 days.
According to a 1993 congressional measure, the longer review is mandated when the company is owned by a foreign government and the purchase "could result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the U.S. that could affect the national security of the U.S."
Congressional sources said the President has until March 2 to trigger that harder look.
"The most important thing is for someone to explain how this is consistent with our national security," Fossella said.
W is so wrong on this - I don't know what those guys are thinking sometimes. Reminds me of the Harriet Meyers nomination...
I don't like this at all.
It boggles the mind how such an intelligent man can allow such flaming idiots to surround him.
There has got to be alot more to this story.
The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.
Wow. Just... mind boggling.
Okay, people, that does it. Bombard Congress and the White House today with calls, letters, email, telegrams, Pony Express. This is unbelievable.
Its scary how close it is. The reaction by bots is no different either.
This is Michael Moore's dream come true.
The political stench in this pile on is overwhelming.
There are legitimate questions about letting a foreign government controlled company manage our ports. P&O , a foreign publically controlled company has managed our ports for years.
Question, if you block the deal, who takes over port management?
"One is Treasury Secretary John Snow"
Amazing how they skipped the adjective "former" there.
Even more amazing is how many FReepers don't even bother to notice.
I'd like to see the BBots defend this one.
This deal would actually increase port security because of the increased scrutiny.
I just don't get what going on here with this and the immigration non sense. The solutions are so simple, but yet Bush and whomever else seem to want to complicate things.
With this Port deal he could just read a statement to the press that the deal is off and be done with it. Maybe Rove should leave because if he is behind not killing this deal and the immigration nonsense, the GOP will be in big trouble come November.
When faced with a steaming pile, you tend not to notice the dust in the corner.
Snow is the current Treasury Secretary.
"Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. "
If increased scrutiny is what we want, why don't we hand the ports over to Bin Laden?
I'd rather we do what is smart here, not what makes business sense.
such flaming idiots
they're more dangerous than that......
Maybe I'm dense but that doesn't seem like a 'connection'.
What makes you think he is so 'intelligent'?
"Question, if you block the deal, who takes over port management?"
If the deal is blocked, the short answer is "someone who can afford to pay confiscatory rent or lease fees on the port infrastructure owned by DP World."
"I'd like to see the BBots defend this one."
Keep reading. They've already begun.
Fox just ran a "Frist will oppose" alert.
It will be fascinating to see how the Democrats waste this opportunity to make points!
Who was the guy who got s***canned?
Shame on Bush.
Fire Snow and Chertoff.
Bush despises Snow, and fired him.
LLS
He was the former chairman of CSX, though. Anyone who believes that ties formed are broken when a man takes a government appointment is a fool.
Those ties are there. And with Sanborn, they're immediate.
> It will be fascinating to see how the Democrats waste this opportunity to make points!
You better pray that they do.
"Maybe I'm dense but that doesn't seem like a 'connection'.
"
The Chairman of a corporation does not give up his ties to that corporation just because he takes a government appointment. That's just silly thinking.
The Democrats' goal is to nationalize the ports.
What we really need is another "efficient" government bureaucracy.
Let me get this straight - CSX sold something to DPW after Snow had already left as chairman of the company. Yeah, that's a real close tie. </sarcasm> Kevin Bacon, please call your office.
He's beaten the Dims at every turn so far...
but on this one he seems to be handing it to them.
"Fox just ran a "Frist will oppose" alert."
I'm not surprised. This is going to get really, really nasty in the next few weeks. On the GOP side, people are already jockeying for position to run for the Presidency in 2008. Even more are trying to hang onto their positions in 2006.
On the Democrat side, any bad news is good news for them.
President Bush has either taken some bad advice here or is not thinking straight about this DP World thing. Nor about the Sanborn appointment.
Maybe his worst move, ever.
Last night I e-mailed Brit Hume and Sean Hannity and suggested that the only American company with the expertise and finances to do this deal was Halliburton. So far no reply.
Uffda!
They already are.
This is an absolute first. I agree with Chuck Schumer on this one. W is making a big mistake and is due the criticizm.
If nothing else, place the Coast Guard at the top of the port Org Chart and they can hire Halliburton or some other eeeevil American corporation to administer the day-to-day ops.
why is he wrong?
"Last night I e-mailed Brit Hume and Sean Hannity and suggested that the only American company with the expertise and finances to do this deal was Halliburton. So far no reply."
1. I don't think Halliburton runs any ports.
2. Tell me with a straight face that the Democrats and the press won't accuse Bush and Cheney of illegal shenanigans on behalf of Halliburton.
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
U.S. ports in a storm
BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Monday, February 20th, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration gave control of six crucial ports to a 9/11-linked Arab nation after a flimsy investigation and with weak guarantees the company in charge can stop Osama Bin Laden from infiltrating, the House homeland security chairman said.
"There are conditions, which shows they had concerns, but it's all procedural and relies entirely on good faith," Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) told the Daily News. "There's nothing those conditions ... nothing that assures us they're not hiring someone with Bin Laden."
The firm, Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, cut a $6.8 billion deal last week to buy control of the ports — including Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's giant container port — from a British firm.
A source with knowledge of the purchase echoed the chairman, telling The News that while Department of Homeland Security administrators rubber-stamped it, senior analysts at the agency were never told, and they don't like it now. News of the sale, approved by a secretive multiagency panel headed by the Treasury Department, has sparked a growing outcry from both political parties.
"It's unbelievably tone-deaf politically at this point in our history, four years after 9/11, to entertain the idea of turning port security over to a company based in the UAE, [which] vows to destroy Israel," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told "Fox News Sunday."
Hearings on the deal have been called for this week in Congress, and Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have proposed a law to ban such takeovers.
Schumer demanded that President Bush personally intervene.
"The President must act," he said at a news conference with New York Harbor as a backdrop. "Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with long involvement in terrorism is a homeland security accident waiting to happen."
But the administration is defending the port transfer, pointing out that even though Dubai was an important base for the 9/11 plot, the emirate is now an American ally.
O'neill....you should start reading the news after 2003.
probably so. It would explain why no new border controls are in place since 9/11.
but on this one he seems to be handing it to them.
What the hell are these people in the White House thinking? They just let this get thrown out there, without any kind of thought whatsoever about what kind of firestorm it'll ignite, without any thought of the political opportunities it hands the Dims? And even now, they don't even bother to get out and even try to defend their decision?
I know someone will come along and tell me what a traitor I am for saying this--but this deal just plain stinks, even without the ties. (In any event, there are probably just as many or more ties to 'Rats.) First the USSC nominee (Harriet someone), now this. Very disappointing.
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