United Arab Emirates firm to operate six major U.S. ports

[longeyes]

I heard Frank Gaffney talking about this today on Hugh Hewitt's radio show. Gaffney thinks it can be stopped. Various pols are getting wind of it and not liking what they're hearing. This is one of those things that gets to the viscera. People are not going to go for it. Let's hope this isn't another one of those things Bush hangs on to like a dog down to his last bone.

 

[Waitone]

I heard about it last night. I said to Myself, "Self, this just don't pass the smell test!"

Heard Limbaugh comment today saying, "It just doesn't smell right."

I want to know more about the group that heard the petition. Who is on it, what is its charter, what is its statutory authority, what is the nature of congressional oversight if any, relationship to the chief executive, what are the vested interest watching over and participating in the decision.

I furthermore want to know more about the UAE's executive who ran operations around the world and then ends up in the department of transportation overseeing this nonsense. Just off hand it smells of a conflict of interest. Who is the dood, where does he come from, what is his political and educational pedigree, who is his sponsor, and what is his job history. I ap very interested in seeing what kind of international blissninny groups with which he is affiliated. This particular episode reeks of corporatism and political cronyism and I want the picture.

 

[seeker_two]

Now, however, four-and-a-half years later, a secretive government committee has decided to turn over the management of six of the Nation's most important ports — in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Baltimore and New Orleans — to Dubai Ports World following the UAE company's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which previously had the contract.

So, here I am sitting in a state between the Mexican border (where Muslim-type OTM's have been observed crossing into the U.S. illegally) and the port of New Orleans (which will soon be run by a nation sympathetic to Muslim-type terrorists)....

Why do I feel so nervous?....

 

[longeyes]

representative gov't at its finest

White House Defends Port Sale to Arab Company

NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Feb. 17, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.

Lawmakers asked the White House to reconsider its earlier approval of the deal.

The sale to state-owned Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by a U.S. committee that considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, run by the Treasury Department, reviewed an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies. The committee's 12 members agreed unanimously the sale did not present any problems, the department said.

"We wanted to look at this one quite closely because it relates to ports," Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary in the Homeland Security Department, told The Associated Press. "It is important to focus on this partner as opposed to just what part of the world they come from. We came to the conclusion that the transaction should not be halted."

The unusual defense of the secretive committee, which reviews hundreds of such deals each year, came in response to criticism about the purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The world's fourth-largest ports company runs commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Four senators and three House members asked the administration Thursday to reconsider its approval. The lawmakers contended the UAE is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.

"The potential threat to our country is not imagined, it is real," Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said in a House speech.

The Homeland Security Department said it was legally impossible under the committee's rules to reconsider its approval without evidence DP World gave false information or withheld vital details from U.S. officials. The 30-day window for the committee to voice objections has ended.

DP World said it had received all regulatory approvals.

"We intend to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements," the company said in a statement. "It is very much business as usual for the P&O terminals" in the United States.

In Dubai, the UAE's foreign minister described his country as an important U.S. ally but declined to respond directly to the concerns expressed in Washington.

"We have worked very closely with the United States on a number of issues relating to the combat of terrorism, prior to and post Sept. 11," Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan told The Associated Press.

U.S. lawmakers said the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. They also said the UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the now-toppled Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism. Dubai's own ports have participated since last year in U.S. efforts to detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., urged congressional hearings on the deal.

"At a time when America is leading the world in the war on terrorism and spending billions of dollars to secure our homeland, we cannot cede control of strategic assets to foreign nations with spotty records on terrorism," Fossella said.

Critics also have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The administration needs to take another look at this deal."

Separately, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Thursday it will conduct its own review of the deal and urged the government to defend its decision.

In a letter to the Treasury Department, Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia said the independent review by his agency was necessary "to protect its interests."

The lawmakers pressing the White House to reconsider included Sens. Schumer, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Reps. Foley, Fossella and Chris Shays, R-Conn.

© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

>

 

[Biker]

Where is Frodo? The Ring must be destroyed.

Biker

 

[gunsmith]

I heard about it on Savage Nation

...It's insane to have another country in charge of your Ports...Dubai or Denmark or UAE or UK
Hades has frozen over, even Schumer is against this...I can't believe I agree with Schumer
wait a minute...if Schumer is against it maybe there is something good about it...strange...very strange...

 

[longeyes]

It's insane to have another country in charge of your Ports

Indeed. But...

The U.S. has become a satellite of another meta-nation, one run by the plutocrats and kleptocrats who bounce from Davos to the Cayman Islands.

It's insane--in a free Republic--to have vital decisions made by "secret committees" that sidestep Congressional oversight.

It's insane that we would have to listen to Bush's Dept. of Homeboy Security tell us that this is, in effect, a done deal that cannot be reversed. Say what? Talk about bloody effrontery.

 

[LAK]

Indeed. But...

The U.S. has become a satellite of another meta-nation, one run by the plutocrats and kleptocrats who bounce from Davos to the Cayman Islands.

It's insane--in a free Republic--to have vital decisions made by "secret committes" that sidestep Congressional oversight.

It's insane that we would have to listen to Bush's Dept. of Homeboy Security tell us that this is, in effect, a done deal that cannot be reversed. Say what? Talk about bloody effrontery.

Yep.

It is interesting to note that the DHS claim it would be "illegal" for them to intervene because of the "committee rules". Using the terms "legally impossible" and "committee rules" here is flat dishonest and misleading. Congress makes our laws, which are legally binding - not a "committee" within the Treasury Department.

Wake up people; your country is being stolen from you right before your very eyes. Openly. In your face.
--------------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

 

[Optical Serenity]

Must of the trade industry in this country is owned by foreign powers, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc. But yeah, it does seem crazy!

 

[longeyes]

If Bush wanted to throw Hillary a juicy bone he's succeeded. She's fronting a bill to stop the port deal. Bush seems to have no problem selling "democracy" to the Middle East while being completely comfortable with secret committee policy making right here in the ol' USA. Trust me, W.'s telling us. Well, I trust him about as much as I trust Dick Cheney's gun handling.

 

[Sindawe]

Interesting wrinkle to this...

U.S. Company Plans $265M Spaceport in UAE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. Company Plans $265M Spaceport in UAE LOS ANGELES (AP) -

A day after Space Adventures announced it was in a venture to develop rocket ships for suborbital flights, the company said Friday it plans to build a $265 million spaceport in the United Arab Emirates.

The commercial spaceport would be based in Ras Al-Khaimah near the southern end of the Persian Gulf, and the UAE government has made an initial investment of $30 million, the Arlington, Va.-based company said in a statement.

The spaceport announcement comes on the heels of Space Adventures' new partnership with an investment firm founded by major sponsors of the Ansari X Prize to develop rocket ships for suborbital flights.

The agreement between Space Adventures and the Texas-based venture capital firm Prodea would help finance suborbital vehicles being designed and built by the Russian aerospace firm Myasishchev Design Bureau.

Space Adventures is best known for sending the first three space tourists to the orbiting international space station for a reported $20 million a person.

Space Adventures' jump into the infant suborbital flight industry comes at a time when several companies already are designing spaceships to take paying passengers on short trips up into space and then back to Earth without circling the globe.

Last December, British tycoon Richard Branson announced development of a $225 million spaceport in southern New Mexico, which will be the headquarters of Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism company.

Virgin Galactic is contracting with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites to develop a suborbital spaceship based on SpaceShipOne technology.

Flying out of Mojave, Calif., SpaceShipOne made history on June 21, 2004, as the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space, then made two more flights later that year to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/feb/17/021700109.html

Hmmmm... Their firms run our sea ports, our firms run their Spaceport.

 

[Manedwolf]

Dubai is one of the freest places in the world.

...If you're an oil-soaked rich Islamist, yes.

That's one of those nations where the rich are VERY rich, and the poor and those of other faiths are...dirt. Not to be seen or heard.

 

[Manedwolf]

Says you, maybe. Downstream stereotyping and general nastiness re Arabs is not.

If gun owners, particularly of the CCW variety, are generally a defensive if not testy lot when it comes to government and the law, it doesn't mean their predisposition to complain and criticize is on topic.

Personally, it seems to me that you've only been opposed to threads where it's impossible to ignore that the current Those in Charge have done something against the interests of national security. This thread, and the last one you'd complained about topicality on was on the fact that nothing is being done to secure the southern border.

As if you might not want to hear that they're less than deities...

Reality is that which, when you do not believe in it, does not go away.

 

[Otherguy Overby]

Lesser of two or more evils

Like recent elections where we have to choose between what hopefully is the lessor of two evils we are now faced with a similar situation except we may not get to choose.

Choice 1: Turn running our ports over to an offshore business that MAY not have our best interests at heart. At least it's a business.

Choice 2: Turn running our ports over to our federal governemnt which is at best totally incompetent and has a leftist bureaucratic agenda. Also, it seems quite obvious to me that our very own government does NOT have our best interests at heart. :banghead:

 

[Waitone]

Choice 2: Turn running our ports over to our federal governemnt which is at best totally incompetent and has a leftist bureaucratic agenda. Also, it seems quite obvious to me that our very own government does NOT have our best interests at heart.

And that sir (presumed) is what has been publically revealed to Joe and Martha Sixpack. Heretofor, arguments for globalization have been couched in various free market buzzwords. The true issues are hidden behind obtuse explanations, free market buzzwords, corporate spin, and government bureaucratic butt-covering. Here in plain view for Joe and Martha to see, and most importantly understand, is a window into the hidden world.

A group in secret, citing unknown government authority, claiming the authority of law makes a decision which is on its face illogical, irrational, and contrary to middleclass America common sense. Joe and Martha also see their chief executive reflexively defend those who make the decision in secret. They feel the president pat them on the head and say, "Don't worry yourself with complicated issues. Just trust me and my people." Joe and Martha immediately check their wallets and want to know why it is we spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on HomeBoy Security (love the term) then turn around and grant control of our ports to the very people who financed the 911 hits. It makes no sense and, more importantly, it smells particularly when you add in the little factoid that an exec of the UAE company ends up in the US bureaucracy that rides shotgun over the ports. Joe and Martha can now rightly and freely tee off on their congressman because they understand the issue clearly, unlike globalization. The end result is congress get melted phones and a come to Jesus moment.

This decision by Bush will be reverse in the next few weeks. In a presidency obviously devoted to all things boner, this particluar boner is top drawer. Hopefully we'll go years without a similar performance but I doubt it. To borrow a phrase from another boner, Bush is about to get bitchslapped again.

 

[Cosmoline]