I have them in pink, blue, and green.
They are easy on the eyes and guaranteed not to run.
Posted on 02/22/2006 3:53:16 PM PST by DoNotDivide
President Bush's announcement Tuesday that he would support the effort of a United Arab Emirates-owned company, Dubai Ports World, in its bid to take over a lease for part of the Port of New York and other major U.S. seaports — even to the point of vetoing legislation that would block the deal — is as regrettable as it is untenable.
President Bush has dug in his heels on a fight he surely cannot win. The only political figure of note who has fully supported his position publicly seems to be former President Jimmy Carter — a salutary reminder of the latter's dismal judgment on national-security matters. Meanwhile the list of elected officials, Republican (including the leadership of the Senate and House) and Democrat alike, making clear their adamant opposition grows.
This sentiment on Capitol Hill reflects the overwhelming, common-sense attitude of the vast majority of the American people. They are horrified at the prospect of entrusting the management of sensitive U.S. port facilities to a government that allowed most of the operational planning and financing of the 9/11 attacks to occur from its soil.
If this drama is allowed to play out fully, several things are predictable:
Legislation will be enacted by veto-proof margins in both the House and Senate to block the DP World takeover of the port terminal and other management contracts currently held by the British company, P & O.
If so, the president will be unlikely to cast his first veto in a futile attempt to block the legislation. The deal will, therefore, be aborted.
Relations with the UAE, which has been helpful in some aspects of the War for the Free World post-9/11 — the factor that seems to have trumped all others in the secretive deliberations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) about the DP World takeover, will be damaged unnecessarily.
This will be particularly so in light of the fact that the congressional investigations of this transaction promised by people like Rep. Peter King and Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chairmen respectively of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, will surely delve into the nature and conduct of Dubai Ports World. If the following response to a posting on the WarFooting.com blog last Thursday by a self-described, but anonymous, former employee of the UAE company is any guide, that won't be pretty:
The US and the West in general are making a serious mistake if they hand over control of 21 ports to an Arab company, owned by an Arab government.
As a former employee of the DP World I can offer a unique insight into the goings on of this company, and I'm afraid if you scrape beneath the surface, it's not all its cracked up to be.
Did you know that several times a year, staff receive a company memo informing them that, for that particular month, one day's salary will be deducted and given to a Palestine "charity"!!! Staff are allowed to refuse by informing Human Resources Department, but no one ever did — knowing that this would lead to being over-looked for promotions and/or not having your contract renewed. I recall one poor Indian dock-side labourer on [a] $500-a-month [salary] complaining that he couldn't afford to make the payment as he had his wife and three children back in India to feed. He promptly was fired!
They have a reputation and a track record of not honouring staff contracts for expatriates, and I know of several employees who didn't receive their end contract bonuses or whose personal effects were not repatriated back to their home country. I mean, what can you do when the company is owned by the government of UAE and Shari'a law applies?
The author goes on to remind us of some of the United Arab Emirates' unsavory behavior: "the UAE bans Israelis from visiting or working in their country, and maps of the world have Israel blackened out. Even a non-Israeli who has visited Israel and has an Israel visa in their passport, is denied entry into the UAE." He also observes DP World made much on their website about "one of its senior executives, Dave Sanborn, being nominated by US President George W. Bush to serve as Maritime Administrator, a key transportation appointment reporting directly to Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Transportation and Cabinet Member."
Some, like my friends at the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, take a libertarian view: The deal makes business sense and, hey, security is the U.S. government's job, not the company's. The truth of the matter is that the job of performing port security is already problematic; an arrangement that affords opportunities to put personnel and cargo in positions where they can do us harm and involves reading people into the government's port-security plans who may not be on our side amounts to what the lawyers call an "attractive nuisance." These are opportunities that are not likely to be passed up by terrorists who have operated from the UAE in the past.
These considerations argue for the president to do as he did with Harriet Miers — namely, recognize that a strategically and politically insupportable mistake has been made and cut his losses. The CFIUS process that put him in this untenable position — and that has been responsible for innumerable other bad decisions about national security-damaging foreign investments must be overhauled. And port security must be made a priority, not something we contract out to one-time, and possibly future, hosts to anti-American terror-wielding Islamofascists.
— Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is a contributor to NRO and the lead author of War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World .
The Replublican Party can't seem to manage power.
Not so sure it's a bluff. We have friends in our local (Republican) Congressman's office who say they've never seen the volume of negative mail as they have on this one. He stepped in it.
The President is right. Everyone else is doing a knee-jerk.
The only thing correct in this is that it is an election year and this is ALL election year politiking.
I respectfully and thoroughly disagree.
The process of allowing strategic American interests to be owned and operated by nations that are at best suspect with regards to our national interests is a slippery slope that we can't slide down any further.
What strategic industry is next??
The Communist Chinese need to give up the other ports, too.
Didn't Jimmy Carter also praise the Shah for his great support of democracy? Not a good sign.
hannity made a similar statement saying that he's got a feel for the outrage by the emails -- miers was a 5 on a scale of 10, and this issue is 10 on that same scale.
You want to send the message to foreign companies "Your investments in the United States are not welcome."
The Shah was immensely preferable to the Mullahs.
I have them in pink, blue, and green.
They are easy on the eyes and guaranteed not to run.
sinkspur: "You want to send the message to foreign companies "Your investments in the United States are not welcome.""
Just the Islamocommienazis, primarily.
Bush Unaware of Ports Deal Before Approval...
Uhh... that isn't any comfort...
Great thinking there, sparky.
"It's nowhere near open revolt. Frist wants to be president--his distancing from Bush is a tactic to set up his campaign. The other Republican members of congress are not in that position. Most want to win re-election: therefore, they will need Bush to campaign with them. In order to do that, they will go along with this deal."
At this rate, Bush is going to be the last person you see at a Republican's campaign. Sadly, he's blowing his political capital faster in outrageous fashion.
Actually Jimmuh sold out the Shah and we ended up in this current mess.
This is even worse than the Harriet Miers fiasco. The sooner Bush realizes it, the better.
The Republicans in congress can't afford to back Bush on this. People are outraged, and rightly so.
The Democrats are making political hay over this, hand over fist. Bush's biggest advantage over the Democrats has been the perception that he protects our country better than they do. But if he doesn't change his position on this REAL QUICK he will severely damage that image.
Yes, it will offend the UAE, one of our allies in the region. That's too bad. If he had been on top of this situation, it could have been done more delicately. Now we have no choice.
Just about the stupidest thing of all was the announcement today that Bush didn't know anything about this decision until after the announcement. Well, duh! Did somebody really think that would make him look better? Whoever came up with that one should be promptly fired.
How, how'd you know my name is Sparky?
Yes, well said. This is the worst time for this WH to be arrogantly stupid.
Even more reason not to use Jimmy to bolster the UAE management of ports..
This whole thing is chilling. I'd expect and do expect it from Rats. Our border/port security DURING A WAR against an assymetrical, dastardly enemy, is beyond reprehensible.
hey sparky!!
Do you have ANY idea who USED to run D&P, until shortly after 9/11/01? Any at all?
Oooh, cute comment.
"Do you have ANY idea who USED to run D&P, until shortly after 9/11/01? Any at all?"
OK, I'm interested, but you're going to have to decipher this. Do you mean P & O, or DP World?
The problem is that the deeper you go into this story the less the details matter; it doesn't matter if a Muslim country doesn't "own" the port or even that most of the employees won't be UAE citizens. What matters is that a company with long standing ties to terrorists and terrorist states will be in a position undermine U.S. Security. In my experience, Republicans are more angry about it than Demorats.
D/P
Why? This was such a yawner that it could be approved at a committee level.
The fact that it was demagogued by Schumer, and responded to in kind by a brain dead Bill Frist, while the American people are stuck on stupid in a hysterical anti-Arab wave, shows how much emotion rules the day in this American Idol society.
Schumer didn't need to demagogue this; it demogogues itself.
It also downplays the "cronyism" charge ; )
To who? Personally, I hit my limit on their "friendliness" on 9/11.
Complete 911 Timeline: The hunt for bin Laden
Intelligence reports foresee the presence of bin Laden at a desert hunting camp in Afghanistan for about a week. Information on his presence appears reliable, so preparations are made to target his location with cruise missiles. However, intelligence also puts an official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and members of the royal family from that country in the same location. Bin Laden is hunting with the Emirati royals, as he did with leaders from the UAE and Saudi Arabia on other occasions
[9/11 Commission Report, 3/24/04 (B)] People and organizations involved: Osama bin Laden
Of course he did. He waited until January to say anything about something that's been in the works for SIX MONTHS!!
"Congress knows the risk of having division in the party during an election year. Bush wont budge."
President Bush apparently is unaware of this risk, of having division in the party during an election year, if he won't budge.
Grand slam!
And it was a change up.
Did you know about it six months ago?
Firm sues to block foreign port takeover (Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc)
Knowing how things tend to work, you could be right.
However, I have a hunch you could be 100% wrong. The insanity has to stop somewhere, and finally, the public is understanding what's been happening to America.
We need to get the Communist Chinese from over our ports too.
Yep. "Takeover of US Ports" is the meme and so inaccurate. Oh well, it too will pass....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.