Posted on 02/23/2006 2:44:45 PM PST by Cornpone
Washington - US President George W Bush's war on terror is being turned against him by democrats and rebelling members of his own Republican Party in an election-year dust-up over a deal that allows a company owned by an Arab government to manage major United States ports.
People in both parties were suggesting it's another case of Bush seeming to be tone-deaf to controversy - on top of government eavesdropping, Hurricane Katrina recovery and vice-president Dick Cheney's hunting accident in which he shot a friend and withheld the news overnight.
The storm was forcing the president to choose between losing face with the Arabs or embarking on what would be his first veto battle with the Republican-led congress.
National security
It had enabled democrats seemingly to outflank him on an issue that his party normally excelled in: national security.
Has Bush lost his way politically - or at least his touch?
Conservative representative Sue Myrick wrote Bush: "In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just no - but hell no."
No matter that no American port was actually being sold; Bush faced a spreading rebellion among Republicans, democrats and port-state governors.
Representative Vito Fossella of New York, a Republican, said: "I think somebody dropped the ball. Information should have flowed more freely and more quickly up into the White House."
US government administration
Fossella said: "I think it has been mishandled in terms of coming forward with adequate information."
Both companies had already approved the deal, transferring port management from a British firm to Dubai Ports World and a US government administration reviewed panel.
Despite Bush's assertion that UAE had been one of the most helpful Arab countries in the war on terror, both senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and House of Representatives speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois threatened legislation to put the deal on hold.
Bush, in turn, vowed to cast his first veto if necessary to stop any such attempt.
Potential for trouble
Princeton University political scientist Fred Greenstein said: "It's a strange thing for Bush to have slipped into, given the savvy you expected from this administration, with a vice-president who spent over a decade on Capitol Hill.
"It seems as if his people would have seen that there was potential for trouble and at least done their homework."
Although a veto showdown could still be avoided, port-deal opponents were optimistic they could muster the two-thirds majorities needed to override one.
Representative Jim Saxton, Republican chairperson of a house subcommittee on terrorism threats, said: "This deal doesn't pass the national security test. I think it is a mistake."
Presidential spokesperson Scott McClellan said that Bush learned about the arrangement in recent days amid increasing news coverage.
Apt name, that. (Poster-of-this- article's name)
Yep...they've been saying this very same thing since it was Governor Bush running for President.
"This deal doesn't pass the national security test."
It passes the "global test," though.
Think the Bush is out of touch with the war on Terror?
I'm just going to point out that Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore are leading the antiwar movement.
People in both parties were suggesting it's another case of Bush seeming to be tone-deaf to controversy - on top of government eavesdropping, Hurricane Katrina recovery and vice-president Dick Cheney's hunting accident in which he shot a friend and withheld the news overnight
First of all, I'm glad South African news thinks they know American politics. But secondly, when EVERYTHING that happens in the world is dialed up to 10 on the hysteria meter by a partisan news media, at some point you start tuning them out. Bush just goes to work and gets the job done without worrying about whether the way he responds meets the media's exacting standards. When you know you'll be attacked NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, you just learn to tune out the professional carping class. The fact is Bush did what's right on wiretapping. It's his opponents and the media that are tone deaf on that one if they can't hear America saying "We need to keep tabs on the bad guys!" As for Katrina, it was an unprecendented disaster where nothing like perfection or anything close to it was ever going to occur in terms of the response, particularly when the locals were falling flat on their face. As for Cheney's first instincts when he shot his friend not being to call David Gregory, I'm not sure how that's Bush's fault or how Bush could have done anything to make Cheney not think about his friend, not think about not wanting to creat a media feeding frenzy at the hospital and not wanting his privacy and that of his friend violated.
So spare us this crap about "Bush is tone deaf to controversy." When every little thing that goes on is defined as "controversy" by a news media determined to wear Americans out on the Bush presidency by dialing every event that somehow touches his presidency up to a 10 on the hysteria meter, you start to just tune it out after a while to focus on getting your job done. We don't need a president who asks "how high?" when the media asks him to jump with whatever it choses to define or create as "controversy."
Pssssst...none of our ports are up for sale.
Bush is doing a great job handing his head to the media on a silver platter.
Oh...Ok, never mind.
You don't hear much about the fact that this sale occurred before the Cheney shooting incident.
And that the media didn't give a damn about it then. Their only thought was how to destroy the Administration.
Looks like their goal is the same with this issue.
Oh please, it doesn't matter what President Bush does. If he walks on water, the media would say 'Bush can't swim.' So he really doesn't care, it's not like he's going to run for President again anyway.
A greater threat to America's security is the swarm of millions of illegal aliens (that includes Middle Eastern illegals) just walking over the border.
The fact that Bush's critics are beating the drum over this port deal and not over stopping the illegal alien invasion makes the case that this is election year BS a slam dunk.
The fact Bush refuses to stop the illegal alien invasion makes the the case Bush places the best interest of the USA far down his ranking list of priorities a slam dunk also.
My tagline says it all.
Sheesh.
A country that sponsored the terrorists, and was home to two of the terrorists is being allowed to buy this port.
Why don't you get your facts straight before posting sheer nonsense like this? First of all, NO PORTS ARE BEING SOLD. Ports CANNOT BE SOLD. Certain operations sectors of some of the ports are being sold from the British company currently operating them, P&O, to a company based in the UAE. Americans will continue to man the ports and DHS, the Coast Guard, US Customs and the local port authorities will continue to run the security. So NOTHING will change.
As for your claims the UAE "sponsors" terrorists, that is the most vile of bulls--t and what's more I think you know it. Because 2 verminous 9-11 hijackers were from the UAE does NOT mean the UAE sponsors terrorists anymore than the Brits sponsor terrorism because the subway bombers were from the UK. Those 2 hijackers have NEVER in any way been connected to the govt. of the UAE anymore than Tim McVeigh was the fault of the US govt.
And if some UAE banks were used as funding conduits for Al Qaeda, well so were US and European banks as well. This in no way has been tied to the UAE's govt.
Since 9-11, UAE central-bank officials have strengthened antimoney-laundering and terror-financing laws and have increased oversight of the financial system.
Recently, the UAE has moved to the forefront of Gulf states in cooperating with U.S. diplomatic initiatives against terrorism and nuclear proliferation. In little-publicized missions, State and Treasury Department officials have been shuttling to the Emirates over the past two years to work out cooperation.
Only last week, the State Department's nonproliferation chief, Steven Rademake, was in Abu Dhabi seeking to coordinate new security initiatives.
Current and former U.S. officials say the UAE has provided significant assistance both in passing along terrorism tips and in helping apprehend suspects. In the lead up to Sept. 11, UAE officials passed along information that led to the arrest of several "major terrorism suspects," said Mr. Kattouf, the former ambassador.
"These were not small fries." U.S. officials say that UAE has continued to pass along significant intelligence. The country was also the first in the region to implement the U.S. cargo-security initiative to prescreen containers destined for the U.S.
Now waste your time responding to this with more of your slanderous non-think. You have made yourself a dupe of the leftist media, a pawn of Democratic Bush bashers, a victim of Chuck Schumer and his obsessive lying to win back the Senate in November and I have NOTHING MORE TO SAY TO YOU. I will NOT READ NOR REPLY TO ANY OF THE IGNORANT, ILL-INFORMED VOMIT YOU POST. YOU ARE WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY AND PARTICULARLY WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE ON YOUR SIDE OF THIS DEBATE. I drip with contempt for people like you.
"So he really doesn't care, it's not like he's going to run for President again anyway."
I somehow doubt that this statement is going to gain much traction as a defense.
Absolutely. IF only the media had fomented this much outrage when their boy Bill Clinton was allowing Loral Corp. to sell top secret US missile technology to the Chinese all for campaign cash. But that was just a "right wing smear."
They aren't buying the port.
They are leasing two terminals out of 14 at the port.
There are background checks on everybody that enters the port.
Also arab shipping companies have been using these ports for decades.
Also the govt of china has the same deal with a lot of these ports.
I am sick of the lies from this story. I am so sick of the story.
If you don't want this company at the port then you should have to kick out all the arab shipping companies that have been working the ports for decades.
Also this story is not going to go away because Dubai had to raise a lot of money for this deal. They worked years for this deal. This is going to be long and messy.
If they were smart they would take the two uk ports and the india ports in the deal and get out. I don't know if them getting out of the U.S would kill the whole deal.
The other bidding partner was the company from singapore.
I am so tired of Bush being blamed for something he had no control over. These deals have been passed by bueracrats for decades. By the time bush found out about the deal it could only be reopened if the company lied in the application.
Also people make it out like this is a deal between bush and dubai.
The deal was between the british company and dubai.
If Dubai were to lose the deal state owned singopore would get the deal.
The politics from the last year makes me wish john kerry had won.
To have had to deal with nagin and blanco and then deal with this is enough to make you wish for a democrat president who would have to deal with this crap.
President Bush doesn't have the job of President to do the popular thing, it's to do the right thing.
I think he knows a little more about what goes on in the Middle East than you or I do, and who the players are and how things work over there.
I think he knows that alienating one of our few partners in the WoT would not help our cause in the long-run.
Many are whining because they look at it from the perspective of the November elections. News Flash, it is not the President's job to win elections for his party, it is his job to do what's right for the country.
I had reservations about the port deal, especially because the firm is owned by the Dubai government. But I also know, that cancelling the deal probably would be even worse.
Hey, Florida trained them to fly.
I'm for a bill barring Florida from doing business in NYC. What do you say?
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