Inside the Ring [Why Bush wanted Dubai Port deal]

Washington Times ^ | July 20, 2007 | Bill Gertz

[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.

[soccermom]

If that is the case, why does he continue to cite Dubai ports in his litany of reasons why he is an independent thinker willing to criticize the GOP?

[TheThinker]

History will tell.

[DrDeb]

“What did Rush say? The last I remember he was against the whole thing.”

Unlike the ‘knee jerk’ pundits/talkers, Rush recognized the strategic advantage of the Dubai deal from the beginning . . . He was never against the deal.

[jwh_Denver]

You’ve jogged my memory, you’re right. Thanks for replying.