Posted on 07/20/2007 7:19:48 PM PDT by plain talk
Former Inside the Ring co-author Rowan Scarborough has written a new book revealing a key reason the Bush administration pressed hard for the 2006 deal for the United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Ports World to take over management of several U.S. ports. According to Mr. Scarborough, the administration wanted the deal to go through because the UAE government had agreed to let the United States post agents inside its global port network who could report on world shipping.
Dubai Ports currently runs port facilities at key U.S. intelligence targets, including Venezuela, China, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia. "Dubai Ports, in essence, was going to become an agent of CIA," Mr. Scarborough said in an interview. "The arrangement is helping us detect whether any kind of terror contraband was being moved around." The management deal to run ports at New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami was initially approved by the Treasury Department-run Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but was eventually scuttled in 2006 after pressure from Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats raised concerns that the deal would affect U.S. port security since al Qaeda had used UAE as a major financial base for its terrorist network.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The people who opposed the deal still won’t care. Hannity isn’t going to come out and say he was wrong about it, and this is the issue that caused me to stop paying attention to him.
“Oooops.”
I knew this whole brouhaha was stupid and insulting.
Next thing you know, Harriet Miers is actually a Constitutional originalist
That’s because you can’t trust Pisslam and Bush was stupid to do this.
As if the U.S. couldn't do it anyway.
Sounds like spin to me.
lol...yup. And Bush wanted the amnesty deal to be able to better keep track of terrorists within our borders. Damn brilliant, he and Rove.
I knew it then—the president was right about this.
Well ... if true ... this just exposed United Arab Emirates as CIA co-operatives. No national security breach here. Let’s move on.
The Administration really screwed that one. At the time I said they needed to show how the deal would benefit national security, and mentioned this exact possibility. It could have been a big political win. But no.
That’s what the Bush administration gets for not coming out and stating the facts. Just sit back and get whumped on again and again.
As one of “the people who opposed the deal” I maintain it was a high price to pay.
A year and a half later?
Yeah, come on out and discuss covert operations to protect them. That’d work.
Yes. “Just selling a book”.
It just shows that our side fo the aisle ain’t always right. There’s a much more legitimate gripe with his lack of vetos and speaking out than Miers or Dubai.
I think any country not on the axis of evil list is going to have spook assets.
If you believe this story.
Gee, you think saying that we can have cargo inspected is being “covert”? That’s as covert as Valerie Plame.
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