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President George W. Bush was expected on Friday to approve Dubai's $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a British engineering company with U.S. plants that supply the Pentagon, an administration official said. "It's in the pipeline to be approved," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bush was expected to attach conditions to the deal to keep military technology in the United States, the official said. Bush's expected decision followed a congressional uproar over security fears that scuttled another Dubai state-owned company's plan to acquire operations at major U.S. ports. The administration has attempted to head off that kind...

WASHINGTON Answering criticism about security gaps at U.S. seaports, the Bush administration said Tuesday it will conduct background checks on an estimated 400,000 port workers to ensure they do not pose a terrorist threat. Names of employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. Additionally, the Homeland Security Department will issue tamper-free identification cards to roughly 750,000 workers _ including truckers and rail employees _ who have unrestricted assess to ports.

SAMI AL-ARIAN ADMITS CONSPIRACY IN PLEA AGREEMENT " There is no conspiracy to support terrorism ."  - Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for Tampa chapter of Council on American Islamic Relations From what I’ve been able to gather, there seems to be enough evidence to prove a web of conspiracy . Let’s have a look and see if that’s true! American Muslim Council (AMC)1. Former Spokesman: Faisal Gill.2. Founder: Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi.3. Former Director: Erik Vickers 1. Faisal Gill Former spokesman for the American Muslim Council (AMC) Former director of government affairs for the Islamic Free Market Institute (Islamic Institute) in Washington, D.C.,...

The 950' container ship New Delhi Express has grounded at the entrance to Port Elizabeth in NY harbor. She is listing heavily to her starboard and her draft has increased from 35' to 44' since striking the edge of the ship channel at Bergen Point. No news organizations covering this yet.

22 smuggled Chinese arrested at the Seattle seaportICE launches probe into human smuggling scheme SEATTLE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are continuing to piece together the details this morning of a human smuggling scheme that resulted in the arrest of 22 Chinese nationals at the Seattle seaport overnight. Several of the Chinese were initially spotted by private port security personnel wandering in a cargo area at around 1:00 a.m. today. The port personnel contacted the Department of Homeland Security and ICE agents and officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) responded. This morning, ICE agents...

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...

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.

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 - The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll might sound like a broken record, but the tune grows louder as congressional midterm elections get closer and closer: President Bush is once again facing the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, the lowest percentage of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction, and an electorate that greatly prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one. Yet the poll also shows something else that goes beyond the November midterm elections: A strong majority believes Bush is experiencing a long-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover....

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...

The Ports and the President by William J. Murray The transfer of the operation of six American ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became a major controversy, with virtually the entire Congress on one side and the President on the other. Both Republican House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist have started the process of passing laws to ban the transfer, while the President stands by the decision of the Treasury. Democrat Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York also wanted the deal blocked and have accused the President of continually allowing...

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 Clintons pass in the night Written in conjunction with Eileen McGann Bill and Hillary Clinton are the first couple to appear simultaneously and independently on the national political stage. They are using their special circumstances as a convenient shield for one another, fulfilling, at once, Hillary’s dream of no accountability and Bill’s of being able to take both sides of an issue. Did Hillary know that Bill was pardoning the FALN terrorists to help her win Puerto Rican votes in New York? Oh, she was opposed to the pardon. Did Hillary find out that Bill was granting pardons to...

WASHINGTON - Lapses by private port operators, shipping lines or truck drivers could allow terrorists to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States, according to a government review of security at American seaports. The $75 million, three-year study by the Homeland Security Department included inspections at a New Jersey cargo terminal involved in the dispute over a Dubai company's now-abandoned bid to take over significant operations at six major U.S. ports...