Bush Administration OKs United Arab Emirates Company to Handle US Port Operations

I tried to read that first article, but it read like some crazy person wrote it.

What are you worried about? A container marked "toys" really holds a platoon of PLA soldiers or a dirty bomb for sabotage? I'm sure this could happen, but it's really up to motive and opportunity. If the fight was brought to US soil, we are probably close to firing nuclear missles at eachother. I don't think they would do that. Whereas, Dubai has been a transit point for the murderers of 3,000 Americans. The motivation is there for the terrorist and a port controlled by sympathizers could be the opportunity. Therein lies the difference.

 

Hypocracy indeed.

So the war on drugs is being hamstrung by the "international community?" You should realize that up until the last decade or so, there was a grand total of ONE country that deviated in even minor ways from the "UN Single Convention on Drugs" that was written by the US.

The DEA has NEVER known "exactly how to stop the flow" of drugs into the US. Drugs operate under the economic laws of supply and demand, which is the reason that we will never eradicate drug use. We could reduce usage and could dramatically reduce abuse, but that would require moving in a completely different direction.

 

jeez it took all of one post for us to get the obligatory 'well clinton did it' post; now this thread is talking about everything but the initial subject.

 

I know - it's a shame. But it's just tough to resist when somebody points to something as patently defective as that article from WingNutDaily to resist obliterating it.

 

I feel somewhat responsible.................NOT.

 

By the Chinese, do you mean the company Hutchison Whampoa, a publicly traded MNC founded in the 1800s by some British people and currently having major business operations in all 5 continents ranging from shipping, telecommunications, financials, hotels, IT, entertainment, energy etc, and whose current chairman Li Ka-Shing happens to be of ethnic Chinese descent? (Li Ka-Shing's family fled from mainland China after the communist takeover)

 

What the heck is this argument about Dubai being somehow a hub for international terrorists? Are you guys freaking kidding me or are you just making up crap as you go? Dubai is the Hong Kong of the Middle East, most of the people living there are foreign workers and investors from all around the world. That Dubai-based corporation that will be working on some American ports probably has more Americans and Europeans than Arabs, that's how most Gulf Arab corporations work, much like ARAMCO and numerous other corporations.

To suggest that this might be a 'security risk' is rediculous and xenophobic, it's not like we're hiring the Bin Laden Construction Group to work on our skyscrapers, we have billions and billions of dollars in dealings with various MNCs throughout the Middle East, Russian, and other regions that you might deem 'unfriendly'. That's just the nature of the global economy.

The politicians who're going after the president for his decision to award this contract are merely trying to secure political brownie points to capitalize on the mass hysteria that's apparently gripping many of you here as well.

 

"We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system," he (Chertoff) added.

buisness as usual - money over security. putting the interests of the globalists over the saftey of americans.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3670204.html
Port contract encounters more criticism
Chertoff defends deal with United Arab Emirates

WASHINGTON — U.S. terms for approving an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major American ports are insufficient to guard against terrorist infiltration, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said today.

"I'm aware of the conditions and they relate entirely to how the company carries out its procedures, but it doesn't go to who they hire, or how they hire people," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told The Associated Press.

"They're better than nothing, but to me they don't address the underlying conditions, which is how are they going to guard against things like infiltration by al-Qaida or someone else, how are they going to guard against corruption?" King said.

King spoke in response to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comments today about conditions of the sale. King said he learned about the government's terms for approving the sale from meetings with senior Bush administration officials.

Chertoff defended the security review of Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates, the company given permission to take over the port operations. Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns." But Chertoff declined to discuss specifics saying that information is classified.

"We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint," Chertoff said on ABC's "This Week."

London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., was bought last week by DP World, a state-owned business. Peninsular and Oriental runs major commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Lawmakers from both parties are questioning the sale as a possible risk to national security.

"It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history," Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now," Graham said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, on CBS' "Face the Nation," said, "It is ridiculous to say you're taking secret steps to make sure that it's OK for a nation that had ties to 9/11, (to) take over part of our port operations in many of our largest ports. This has to stop."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Arab journalists in an interview Friday at the State Department, that it was "the considered opinion of the U.S. government that this can go forward." She pledged to work with Congress because "perhaps people will need better explanation and will need to understand some of the process that we have gone through."

At least one Senate oversight hearing is planned for later this month.

"Congress is welcome to look at this and can get classified briefings," Chertoff told CNN's "Late Edition."

"We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system," he added.

Sen. Robert Menendez, who is working on legislation to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operation in the U.S., said Chertoff's comments showed him that the administration "just does not get it."

In a statement, the New Jersey Democrat said, "No matter what steps the administration claims it has secretly taken, it is an unacceptable risk to turn control of our ports over to a foreign government, particularly one with a troubling history. We cannot depend on promises a foreign government has given the administration in secret to secure our ports."

Chertoff said Dubai Ports World should not be excluded automatically from such a deal because it is based in the UAE.

Critics have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, they contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist.

Dubai Ports World has said it intends to "maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements." The UAE's foreign minister has described his country as an important U.S. ally in fighting terrorism.

"I would hope that our friends in Abu Dhabi would not be offended by the fact that in our democracy, we debate these things," Rice said in the interview with the Arab journalists.

 

this highlights the same hypocrisy of the liberal intelligentsia that was highlighted in that china movie thread.

given the complete impotence of their politics they have to resort to arab/china hating in order to get any sentiment. and i dont think they really buy it but i think its their rendition of becoming republicrats.

this is eff'ing dubai. 'islamic terrorists' probably hate dubai more than the US. theirs widespread drinking, gambling, prostitution, clubbing, wasting money on useless nonsense (indoor skiing/artificial islands/hotels in the ocean accessible via helicopters/building the tallest building in the world and eclipsing the current tallest perhaps by 50 floors).

 

CALM DOWN GUYS,
we have a CIA agent in DUBAI!

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060221/ap_on_go_co/port_security

im really getting sick of all these LIBPIGS like republican governors petaki and ehrlich of new york and maryland questioning the president regarding the sale of u.s. ports to foreign interests.

and dont even get me started on the dirty LIBPIG, republican house homeland security chairman peter king openly questioning the bush administration's willingness to protect our nations ports.

just blind partisan whining from these LIBPIG republicans.

 

I think allowing an foreign-based company to run our ports is a very bad decision.

I don't know if they even bidded on this, but I think a company like CSC/DynCorp would have been a much better choice.

 

those who oppose the president are libtards?

 

where's supernaut?

 

News like this doesn't matter.

What matters is if the President got a blowjob in the Oval Office.

 

I know you know this, but for the slower crowd we musn't forget that Hong Kong was British controlled for 150 years and China did not take over until the middle of 1997. It seems the contract to HL was in January 1997 so technically Clinton gave the contract to a British controlled company. It was those shifty Brits who gave it all to the evil Chinese!

 

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060221/D8FTFTJ89.html

more republican libpigs speaking out about bush's sale of u.s. ports to state-owned arab companies.

these republican libpigs make me sick - they should just all move to france...because france hates freedom.

 

The Republican governors of New York and Maryland yesterday questioned the Administration's decision to green-light the UAE-controlled company's bid to operate six major US ports. Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich says he "got no advance notice before the Bush administration approved an Arab company's takeover." – USA Today

"Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, defended the deal and denied it was coming under fire in the U.S. because of anti-Islamic sentiment. Mrs. Hughes said the Bush administration would seek to further reassure U.S. lawmakers that the takeover had undergone a thorough security review." – Washington Times

Former President Jimmy Carter spoke out in the Administration's defense, saying there's no real security issue here. – Miami Herald
first read

 

What is Chris Burke doing in Iraq? He should be getting ready for spring training.