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A former French spy has told how, after being accused of a multimillion-pound fraud in Dubai, he disguised himself as an Arab woman and fled to international waters in a rubber dingy. Herve Jaubert, who served in the French intelligence service until March 1993, said that he drew on his experience to escape after a joint business venture turned sour. He said that he had been running a business in America building submarines when he was approached by Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate, to form a joint venture making submarines, and he moved to Dubai in 2004. “Like an idiot...

Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America. The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US. The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought...

DUBAI — Dubai Ports World, which faced a last-minute snag in selling its US ports, yesterday said it will not budge to the new demand made by New York Port Authority to pay a $84 million transaction fee. Speaking to Khaleej Times from New York, Chairman of Dubai World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: "We have not accepted and we will not accept the huge fee they now demand. However, we are confident that the issue can be resolved as we remain committed to completing the sale as promised." Although DP World has received approval for the sale of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dubai Ports World, the company whose planned takeover of major port operations in New York and other U.S. cities ignited a political firestorm last year, may be headed for a new storm in its plan to sell off those operations to a U.S.-based company. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is seeking tens of millions of dollars from the prospective new owner, AIG Global Investment Group, for improvements the port agency has made to the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, N.J., which AIG would operate. Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund said Wednesday he...

Remember Dubai Ports International? The first-rate Emirates-based firm that, fair and square, tried to buy the operations of several U.S. ports? They were reviled as terrorists, a public outcry followed and then U.S. Congress stuck its nose into the whole business, baselessly condemning the company for no good reason until they were ignominously forced to withdraw from those plans. It was totally unfair to them, they didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and it sent an incredibly bad message to the rest of the world that the U.S. was flamingly hypocritical. That whole debacle made me ill. Anyway, this setback...

The silence on Capitol Hill has been deafening. On April 28, 2006 the White House announced the approval by President George Bush regarding the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) of its recommendation that Dubai International Capital LLC (DIC), a subsidiary of Dubai Holding and a Dubai government owned conglomerate, to assume the U.S. operations of Doncasters Group Ltd. Just seven weeks prior, there was political posturing, grandstanding and outrage expressed by both political parties in the U.S. Congress when it was revealed, through the U.S. media, that Dubai Ports World, also of Dubai Holding, would takeover...

The deal between Doncasters Group and Dubai International Capital got the green light today from President Bush. The deal was scrutinized by CFIUS and the Pentagon. Congress (for now) seems okay with the deal. According to the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042800748.html"This investigation was a significant improvement over what happened before," said House Homeland Security Chairman Peter T. King, R-N.Y. "It's been much more thorough, much more detailed." Even Chuckie Schumer is okay with this deal. Per the WaPo... "There are two differences between this deal and the Dubai ports deal," he said in a statement. "First, this went through the process...

CAIRO, Egypt - A confidential Treasury Department review of a United Arab Emirates firm's pending purchase of the British-based contractor that makes components for a tank used by the U.S. Army is expected to go to the White House as soon as this week, according to administration officials. The proposed $1.2 billion deal is almost identical to Dubai Ports World's takeover of the British firm that operated American ports from Miami to New York. But in this case, the proposed buyer, Dubai International Capital, would gain control of a British company, Doncasters Group Limited, that builds the specialized turbine fan...

Dubai: Dubai Ports World will invest Dh12.9 billion to develop and expand five ports in the next three years, a top company official said yesterday. They include London Gate, Guangdong in China and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam as part of the P&O deal, besides Kochi in India and Yarimca in Turkey. Mohammad Sharaf, chief executive of DP World, told Gulf News his company had been selected by Pakistan to operate Gwa-dar port. Pakistani government, which said the DP World offer was the best, is studying the terms of the deal to give the green light, he said. Meanwhile, Deutsche...

Tucked into a recent New York Times and, I suspect, read by few was a brief item with the bland headline "Software Company Abandons Deal." This is not the sort of bait to pique readers' interest, yet it provides insight into how powerful Israel is - or is not - in Washington. CheckPoint, an Israeli company, was forced by the Bush administration to drop plans to buy a small American software firm. The decision came "near the conclusion of a full-blown investigation by the same American panel that approved the now-abandoned ports deal involving DP World." This body was expected...

WASHINGTON - New legislative proposals responding to the scandal over a Dubai-owned company's attempted takeover of major operations at some major U.S. ports, which touched off a political firestorm, are getting attention in Congress on Thursday. Measures coming before committees in the House and Senate aim to strengthen U.S. cargo security and port safety, and to bring the federal panel that approved the DP World ports deal under tighter oversight by Congress. The multiagency panel, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, would be required to investigate any proposed transaction that involved a foreign government or "critical...

WASHINGTON -- An executive with a Dubai-owned company withdrew his nomination as head of the agency that oversees ports in a letter to President Bush on Monday. ... Sanborn, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a retired Naval officer, said in his letter that the day he was nominated was the proudest of his life. Former presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., put holds on Sanborn's nomination, saying they needed to know more about his role in the process that allowed DP World to purchase the port operations in the first place. "I...

Despite published reports, former President Bill Clinton says he and his wife always stood together in opposition of the United Arab Emirates port deal. NY1’s Rita Nissan filed this report. There was no Clinton family feud over the Dubai ports deal. That's the word from the former president. “I supported Hillary's position, and the news reports to the contrary were wrong,” Clinton said Tuesday. These were his first comments since the controversial deal fell apart last week. He told reporters at an event in Harlem the agreement for a company owned by the United Arab Emirates to take control of...

Senator's word is now 'final,' says the ex-Prez WASHINGTON - After being surprised by her husband's role in the Dubai ports deal, Sen. Hillary Clinton has insisted that Bill Clinton give her "final say" over what he says and does, well-placed sources said. The former President agreed to give his wife a veto to avoid his habit of making controversial headlines that could hurt her chances of returning to the White House, multiple sources told the Daily News. "He knows it's Hillary's time now," said an adviser close to both Clintons who expects to play a key role in her...

Anto Joseph Mumbai Sunday March 19, 2006 The Observer The controversial £3bn bid by Dubai Ports World to take over P&O has hit another serious problem. Indian states have indicated that they may refuse to sell key ports to DPW over breaches of what they say are long-standing ownership agreements.

This whole situation with P & O, DP World and Eller & Co is just so bizarre. More twists and turns than a pretzel factory... Found this article, "Dubai accused of lying on ports", buried deep in Internet search land. Remember the email that was "leaked" to the media that implied that DP World was not going to sell its US assets? Guess who the leaker was? (no it wasn't Sen. Rockefeller)... None other than Eller & Co's own lawyer, Michael Kreitzer. Kreitzer said "we're making this public because we think Congress should do what it planned last week -...

The U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Services truly are wonderful in safeguarding the country from hazardous materials that could be smuggled into our ports in shipping containers. They have a program that not only protects us but also speeds up the inspection process. Among those anxious to help this process are two people with very little in common. One is Hu Haifeng, a Red princeling, a business executive who lives and works in Beijing. He's the son of Hu Jintao, the president of China. The other is Sandy Berger, who was Bill Clinton's national security adviser for four years.[snip] Berger...

How's that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company?

CHINA’s premier, Wen Jiabao, holds a rare news conference to announce, among other things, that his government will do nothing to increase the value of the yuan. America’s commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, responds with a warning that such a policy “will have consequences ... The American people may be forced to reassess our bilateral economic relationship”. And he wants more than a currency revaluation. Congress, he says, is prepared to act unless China opens its telecoms, IT and state procurement sectors, and takes steps to protect intellectual property. Gutierrez made these demands knowing that only a few days earlier the...

Both sides in our nation's latest exercise in political posturing succeeded. Democrats who were anxious to make Republicans look bad and Republicans who increasingly find a need to distance themselves from a president with plummeting poll numbers jumped aboard the Dubai ports controversy and now claim victory. Only about a month after the announcement that Dubai Ports World (DPW) — a firm controlled by one of the governments that make up what is known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — would purchase the rights to manage operations [at terminals](edited by Cannoneer No. 4) at six major U.S. ports, the...

How’s that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company? [snip] If I were Dubai Ports World, I’d sell the U.S. operations to Cosco, the Chinese Commies who run port operations in California, just for the fun of watching congressional heads explode. Or does Washington’s new fun xenophobia stop at the (Pacific) water’s edge? Congress’ demand that DPW sell their U.S. operations to someone even if there’s no someone to sell them to is almost a parody of the Democrats’ (and naysaying Republicans’) approach to...

The controversy over Dubai Ports World was a great victory for them—but a defeat for candor and sensible security and economic policies. Untruth by Robert Samuelson March 20, 2006 issue - The idea of letting an Arab-owned company, Dubai Ports World, run container terminals at five U.S. ports struck many Americans as an absurdity. Why not just turn control directly over to Al Qaeda? In late February, a CBS News poll found that 70 percent of respondents were against the deal and only 21 percent in favor. The company's withdrawal last week can be seen as a triumph of public...

This is a partial transcript of "Special Report With Brit Hume" from March 10, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. JIM ANGLE, GUEST HOST: Different people draw different lessons from the two-week debate over port security and whether to let a company from the United Arab Emirates own the unloading operations at six U.S. ports. Several experts repeatedly tried to tell Congress that it was focusing on the wrong thing. One of them is John Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and author of "Winning The Long War." He argues that the U.S. is less safe without the deal than...

WASHINGTON // A Democratic senator said Thursday that he'll prevent an executive with a Dubai-owned company from being appointed head of the agency that oversees ports until he's sure the company is selling all its U.S. port operations to an American buyer. President Bush in January nominated David Sanborn, DP World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America, to head the Maritime Administration. Shortly after the nomination, DP World's planned purchase of a company that runs six major U.S. port facilities became the center of a roiling political controversy. DP World did complete its purchase of London-based Peninsular and...

In retrospect, America went collectively insane over the possibility that a company owned by Dubai's government would operate several of our ports. Rarely has reason been so routed by pure emotion. Dubai is a Westernizing state that long ago left the eighth century and accepts the modern world of globalized commerce and finance. This member of the United Arab Emirates has -- especially after Sept. 11 -- passed on intelligence, hosted our fleet and provided a foothold in the gulf near Iraq and Iran. For a country that is addicted to imported petroleum, hooked on cheap imported goods and eager...

The Presidency: Deepening Questions By George Friedman Readers know that we have been tracking one issue almost above all others since last fall: the strength of the Bush presidency. The question that emerged following Hurricane Katrina was whether the administration would become a classic failed presidency or whether, having flirted with disaster, it would recover. Last week, the first indicator (apart from routine approval polls) came in: Congress, in essence, blocked a deal that would have put a state-run company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in charge of several U.S. ports.

The Dubai-owned company that promised to surrender its U.S. port operations has no immediate plans to sell its U.S. subsidiary's interests at Miami's seaport, a senior executive wrote Monday in a private e-mail to business associates. (snip) "As for the 'pending situation,' I myself am not aware of anything about it that would alter the ownership of POMTOC, so unless one or both of our esteemed partners have separately advised you that they plan to sell their interests, you should assume for your own purposes of managing the company that ownership of POMTOC is not going to change," Scavone wrote.

There is much hand-wringing over the collapse of the Dubai port deal. There is much gnashing of teeth in Washington. There is much finger-pointing going on – much blame being spread. President Bush says he's troubled by the political storm that reversed the deal: "I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East." Then, of course, it stands to reason he should have thought this process through a little better. The political storm is of his own making. It was predictable – if only he didn't...

Private equity firm The Carlyle Group established a team to acquire public-purpose facilities such as ports a day after a United Arab Emirates company said it would transfer newly acquired operations at American ports to a U.S. organization. Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group announced an eight-person team would invest in public-purpose infrastructure projects such as ports, transportation and water facilities, airports, bridges and stadiums. The team will begin work March 13. The new infrastructure team had been planned for six months, but the Carlyle Group decided Thursday to launch it. DP World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, acquired...

UAE leadership role praised in ports deal controversy 13 March 2006 DUBAI — The visiting US Congressional delegation praised the US-UAE relations and expressed its determination to maintain their partnership with the UAE. The delegation from Georgia — US Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, and Representatives Phil Gingrey and John Linder — who earlier met His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, also met Director of Dubai Customs Ahmed Butti, and saw a demonstration of the container security operation at Port Rashid. They also met Executive Chairman...

The opponents of the DP World purchase of terminal leases at six US ports owe Sen. Chuck Schumer a bottle of champagne. If not for the Herculean efforts of Sen. Schumer, Arabs would control several terminals at the ports in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Without even having to get involved in a bidding war, some US based terminal operator is going to own the leases that DP World is giving up. By using a campaign of complete and total misinformation while under the influence of a jilted US terminal operator and fanning the flames...

Port Deal's Political Fallout Not Over House GOP Drafting Bill to Require Hill Oversight of Foreign Acquisitions By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 11, 2006; A03 House Republican leaders will unveil legislation as soon as next week demanding a congressional role in reviewing the acquisition of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers, suggesting that the controversy over a now-abandoned Dubai port deal will continue to roil congressional relations with the Bush administration. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is drafting a bill to require congressional oversight as the administration reviews such foreign acquisitions, a role Congress has not...

So DP World has decided to relinquish management of the American ports and terminals. Doubtless the decision was taken to maintain good relations between the UAE and the US and not cause embarrassment to the US President George W. Bush. Yet taking the narrow political view, American politicians against the takeover now look upon the withdrawal by DP World as a "victory". But if it is a victory, it is likely to be short-lived. For longer term consequences may take months, if not years, to materialise. And then, in subtle and possibly unrecognised ways, as the Arab world makes full...

Dubai: US Congressmen have sent a wrong message to the Arab world by opposing DP World's bid to manage container terminal operations at six American ports. The hostility against DP World will further dent US credibility in the region, said Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at UAE University. "Dubai was forced out [of US port operations] as a result of racism and politicisation of a purely business transaction," he said. DP World said on Thursday it would transfer P&O's American assets to a US entity. Contacted by Gulf News yesterday, DP World chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem...

Dean Criticizes GOP on Ports Security By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago The chairman of the Democratic National Committee sought to capitalize Saturday on the recent divide between President Bush and congressional Republicans over ports security, arguing that the GOP has a "pre-9/11 mind-set" on ensuring safety at U.S. entries. In his party's weekly radio address, Howard Dean trumpeted the Democrats' success in helping to derail a plan for a Dubai-owned company to manage some operations at six U.S. ports. Bush strongly backed the deal involving the United Arab Emirates-based company, but many lawmakers, both Republicans and...

The list of U.S. companies most prepared to operate terminals at six ports DP World planned to take over is short. SSA Marine and Maher Terminals appear to be candidates to operate ports in New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., after the decision by DP World yesterday to end weeks of political controversy by divesting itself of the terminals. Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, satisfied lawmakers who opposed DP World's takeover of terminal operations when he read a statement on the Senate floor signaling the company's decision to...

The war on terror appears to be causing a surge in protectionism. Some anti-terrorist warriors are so worked up about immigrants that they want to build a wall along the entire US-Mexican border. They are also fighting the proposed takeover of US ports by a Dubai company, because they fear terrorists could gain vital intelligence from the investments. In Europe, the movement to stop inflows of migrants from Muslim countries is extremely popular. These developments do not constitute more protectionism in the usual meaning of the term, where private interests subvert the public good, as when farmers charge higher prices...

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/editorial_opinion/nation/10024757.html According to a Gulf News poll, 64 per cent of readers say the DP World affair "changed their opinion for the worst" about investing in the United States. A number of businessmen told the newspaper yesterday that Arab investors would think about other destinations. The majority agreed that DP World has been forced out of the US port operations due to "racism". President George W. Bush admitted Congress has sent the "wrong message" to the rest of the world. We don't feel that DP World lost. It in fact won the respect of the international business community when it...

Bush: Ports Deal Collapse May Hurt U.S.YOU CAN THANK THE DEMORATS FOR THAT, A YES MANY REPUBLICANS TOO. (My quote) President Bush said Friday the collapse of the Dubai ports deal could hurt U.S. efforts to recruit Mideast governments as partners in the worldwide war on terror.Separately, in what may have been an aftershock to the failed transaction, a new round of trade talks between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates was postponed.On Thursday, Dubai-based DP World backed away in the face of unrelenting criticism and announced it would transfer its management of port terminals in major U.S. cities...

REVIEW & OUTLOOK The New Protectionists - How to create a real security crisis. Friday, March 10, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Dubai Ports World finally threw in the kaffiyah on its American operations yesterday, agreeing to sell them "to a U.S. entity." We hope that entity turns out to be Halliburton, if only for the torment that would cause certain eminences on Capitol Hill. Dubai Ports was susceptible to this political stampede because it was an Arab-owned company buying port operations, which Democrats have played up as uniquely vulnerable. But this is also the second such mugging of a foreign...

Chicago: Dubai Ports World is unlikely to find many bidders for its six US port terminals embroiled in a political storm over US security concerns, making a sale or spinoff difficult, ship brokers said on Friday. DP World pledged on Thursday to transfer those operations to a US entity to allay concerns that its control of the ports posed a threat to US national security. Potential buyers seem limited to three US companies, brokers said, citing SSA Marine Inc of Seattle, a unit of Carrix Inc; Maher Terminals Inc of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey; and Marine Terminals Corp of Oakland,...

The Dubai-owned company that pledged to surrender its $700 million worth of U.S. port businesses amid a furor on Capitol Hill wants to guarantee it doesn't lose money on the deal. But now that DP World is out of the political frying pan, it could find itself confronting a fire sale of its American assets. Faced with unrelenting pressure from Congress, Dubai's ruler said DP World will transfer to an unspecified American company all U.S. port operations it acquired when it paid $6.8 billion for London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. In its statement, DP World said its decision...

According to a Gulf News poll, 64 per cent of readers say the DP World affair "changed their opinion for the worst" about investing in the United States. A number of businessmen told the newspaper yesterday that Arab investors would think about other destinations. The majority agreed that DP World has been forced out of the US port operations due to "racism". President George W. Bush admitted Congress has sent the "wrong message" to the rest of the world. We don't feel that DP World lost. It in fact won the respect of the international business community when it won...

DP World will not manage six ports in the US as initially agreed, but the aborted deal has achieved for Dubai an outstanding triumph by any yardstick. First, and as Ghassan Tahboub, media manager in the executive office of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said, it is an invaluable lesson. "It was an exercise you have to live with, win and then learn from. This was America. There are lobbies, politics and interest groups, and Dubai found itself in the middle of a jungle. In the end I have...

THE discussions over the DP World issue are going round in circles. There's both hope and hopelessness. All things considered, the inescapable feeling is that President Bush has not handled this issue in a proper way, and that things haven't gone the way it should have. Worse, and more embarrassingly, word went round that he “didn't know what was happening!”

ACCORDING TO yesterday's news, the controversial deal that would have had a United Arab Emirates firm, Dubai Ports World, take over the management of six major U.S. ports is now dead. The Dubai-based firm has decided, in the face of congressional opposition and an almost endless campaign of inflammatory and polemical grandstanding by some members of Congress, to withdraw from the deal.One of those leading the pack in denouncing the DP World bid was New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her opposition to this UAE company has been only slightly short of hysterical, including at one point an analogy to...

PROTECTIONISTS, REJOICE! The dastardly United Arab Emirates company that would have presumed to unload containers of underwear and toothpaste on U.S. soil has backed down, and it will now divest its U.S. port interests to an American entity. Rest assured, the nation is now safe from dangerous Middle Eastern accountants and port logistics specialists. Dubai Ports World did what was necessary, if not necessarily fair, on Thursday by agreeing to give up the U.S. operations of its newly acquired British ports company. The House Appropriations Committee had voted 62 to 2 on Wednesday to block the deal; a similar bill...

Dubai Ports Worls to divest itself of all American interests

Breaking....

WASHINGTON — After Republican leaders warned President Bush that the House and Senate appeared ready to block Dubai Ports World from taking over some U.S. port terminal operations, the company said it would give up its management stake in the deal. The Thursday announcement was a blow for Democrats, who were pushing for a Senate vote on an amendment that would halt the deal. A few minutes later, the Senate voted to ignore GOP requests to wait until a 45-day review of the deal is completed before they try to stop it. "This should make the whole issue go away,"...