Posted on 02/26/2006 8:25:29 AM PST by jraven
Moving toward a deal that could allow President Bush and congressional GOP leaders to save face and avert a prolonged confrontation, GOP officials said today that they were discussing the idea of having Dubai Ports World seek a new review of its acquisition of a British company's operation that runs several key U.S. ports.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, confirmed in a phone interview early Saturday afternoon to TIME that officials were close to a deal involving the Congressional leadership, the White House and the Dubai company. The agreement would call for a 45-day “CFIUS-plus investigation,” King said, referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a Treasury Department-run interagency panel that probes proposed acquisitions in the U.S.
Although the Dubai deal had already been approved by CFIUS, "the rationale for reopening it is, once DP carved out the American ports from the rest of the contract it changed the nature of the agreement so it had to be reviewed again," says King, who had been among the leading GOP voices opposing the deal as first approved without the extra 45-day review process or briefing of Congress. King says will await final details before formally backing any such deal. King added "if we are going to hold back on legislation, I think there has to be continuous congressional review throughout the new CFIUS review.”
If approved by all parties, the new deal would allow Bush to avert a GOP-driven bill to overturn the Dubai deal with enough votes to override Bush's threat of his first veto. Republican sources tell TIME that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee proposed the basic terms of a deal designed to give the White House a graceful way out, while also allaying the concerns of the many lawmakers in both parties who have said the deal could be a threat to our security. Under the Frist plan, the deal could stand a good chance of ultimately going through after the extended review. Frist aides apparently proposed the terms to representatives of the company and the White House late Friday. Neither has formally responded but both seemed interested in the idea, according to a Senate Republican aide. "This avoids a direct clash," the aide said. "It solves everyone's problem. The President doesn't have to cancel the deal or veto anything."
Under Frist's plan, the company would voluntarily separate U.S. ports from the rest of the deal for 45 days, allowing them to continue to operate as they do while the deal is re-vetted. That would allow a new review through the administration's Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. (CFIUS). Administration officials remain adamant that their first review was thorough and proper, so the face-saving element was crucial, according to one Capitol Hill negotiator. Frist is proposing that this time, CFIUS do the extra 45-day review that the law calls for in transactions where there are national security concerns. That provision was not triggered last time because administration officials had no remaining concerns at the end of the first review. This approach would eliminate the need for new legislation now, the Republican sources said.
Actually the whitehouse said that "some" of the Miers critics were sexist and elitists. Do you understand the logical difference between some and all?
Some critics referred to Miers as a "secretary". Some critics ridiculed SMU's law school.
For some of those people, the terms sexist and elitist fit.
From you link, an interesting comment.
It appears that ZIM containers pass through DP World terminals. It appears both ZIM and non-ZIM containers pass through DP World terminals and wind up in ZIM terminals.
And yet, Canada doesn't have a problem with the UAE managing terminals in their country.
Its a global world, and this UAE company is HUGE.
But I wouldn't quit my day job if I were you-Tut Tut...
I said this during the flap over "illegal" wiretapping, I said it over the Cheney shooting flap, and I'll say it again.
Mass propaganda dissemination is a political tool, and the left's tool is waaaaaaaaay better than ours.
We need to wage war on their media with media of our own, equal in size and scope to theirs. But instead of spending our efforts and dollars in doing just that, we expect that THEIR media will work in our favor by putting the correct facts out there, then whine and complain when it doesn't.
That's a crazy notion.
If politics is war, then the media is a gun...we keep showing up to the fight without a gun.
Who said that?
In 2002, the United Arab Emirates continued to provide considerable assistance and cooperation in the war on terrorism. In November, UAE authorities arrested and subsequently turned over to US authorities Abdul Raheem Al-Nashiri, the head of al-Qaida operations in the Arabian Gulf and the mastermind of the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen. UAE authorities, in the course of their investigation into Al-Nashiri’s activities, discovered that he had been planning terrorist operations against major economic targets in the UAE that would have resulted in massive civilian casualties.
In suppressing terrorist financing, the UAE played a critical role in the continuing investigation into the September 11 attacks and provided literally thousands of pages of financial documents pertaining to the movement of terrorist funds. The UAE has created a stronger legal and regulatory framework to deter abuse of UAE financial markets through the passage in January of a comprehensive law criminalizing money laundering, including terrorist money laundering and tightened reporting requirements and oversight. Cooperation across the board—from the financial realm through to security and intelligence—has been strong and sustained.
The UAE in 2002 indicated its commitment to ratifying the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism to which it is not yet a party and is working toward that goal. (In early 2003, the UAE became a party to the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents.) The UAE is now a party to six of the 12 international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism. The Government is in the process of drafting domestic legislation to bring the UAE’s counterterrorism legislation fully into compliance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. In June 2002, the United States sponsored the UAE’s financial-intelligence unit (FIU) for membership in the prestigious Egmont Group, an informal association founded in 1995 to provide support for the FIUs of different nations. The UAE thus became the first Middle Eastern country to join this organization.
The UAE in May hosted a groundbreaking international conference to draw attention to the need for concerted action on the hawala informal money-transfer system—a remittance system handling billions of dollars annually but whose informal nature and lack of reporting requirements renders it vulnerable to abuse by terrorists. In November, the UAE began implementing oversight regulations for the local hawala market.
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2002/html/19986.htm
You claim that the UAE sponsored the 9/11 attacks?
Got anything to back that up with?
We could obviously do with your wise counsel.
Every city on the Great Lakes handles international trade since the St. Lawrence Seaway was established. IE: Polish steel comes into Duluth, MN on grain freighters as a way to lower the cost of carrying hard winter wheat back to Europe.
bookmark
I believe so, but then calmly studying an issue before hysterically debating it has alway been a goal of mine.... : )
Senate Committee Statement by FBI'S John Pistole, 31 July 2003
>>>>After all, it was a citizen of the UAE, Marwan al Shehhi, who piloted United Airlines Flight 175 into the second World Trade Center tower, and it was through the banks of this country that the 9/11 attacks were partially financed.
Mansoor Ijaz NRO Online 2-22-2006
"On September 11, 2001, a few hours before the Twin Towers were attacked in New York, one Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi landed in Karachi. A Saudi nation, Hawsawi was the finance manager of 9/11 operations. There is clear evidence that he moved several thousand dollars from a Standard Chartered Bank account in the UAE to Florida’s SunTrust account operated by Atta and others. Working from Dubai, he had couriered ATM and credit cards to Atta and his group in the US for paying flight training schools, buying simulators and equipment like the Global Positioning System and for booking tickets on flights taking off from various destinations early September 11."
John Wilson: Observer Research Foundation
There is Dubai's Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
Al-Maktoum, Defense Minister of the United Arab Emirates, is also Crown Prince of Dubai-an Arab Muslim country that strongly supported and recognized Afghanistan's Taliban, one of only three countries to do so. According to "From the Desert to the Derby," by Jason Levin, 10 of the 19 September 11th hijackers carried documents and identification from Dubai, a country which also has no laws against money-laundering. Why? Maybe, because money to fund September 11th's terrorism was laundered to ringleader Mohammed Atta, directly from Dubai's banks.
"Opponents of the deal also argue that the FBI found that the UAE's banking system filtered much of the money used for the operational planning before the Sept. 11 attacks, and many of the hijackers traveled to the United States through the UAE. On top of that, the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist."
80% of our international trade terminals are run by foreign countries. It's a fact.
It's nice to see Freepers embracing Muslims again. Gets me all misty.
Me too. 9/11 is long forgotten by some 52% of freepers already. Sad.
Funding sources in the UAE hardly points to support by the UAE.
FROM the UAE is quite different than BY the UAE.
Don't waste my time in the future, you clown.
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