The Dumbest Thing Yet: Turning Our Ports Over to UAE

How could President Bush be so adamant in his desire to turn over the management of 6 American ports to the United Arab Emirates? Two of the 9/11 hijackers hailed from there. The country is not a democracy. It's run by the royal family. Shipments of nuclear components to Iran and Korea have been made from there. Bush has said, if there was one iota of danger in this, the process would not go forward. Well, here's one iota: are they going to do thorough background checks on all their employees to guarantee that none of them are terrorists? Do we know what their background checking process is? How do we know that one or more employees will not become terrorists? And since they will not show the US Government any of their records, we'll never know.

Bush said: "I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company. I am trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world, `We'll treat you fairly.'" Why shouldn't a country that harbors terrorists, doesn't recognize the right of Israel to exist, transshipped nuclear materials to Iran and North Korea, wouldn't let us track Bin Laden's financial transactions be held to a higher standard? Furthermore, why shouldn't an American company control American ports?

This from Randi Rhodes: "In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

"Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries."

Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said:  "There is a very serious question as to why the records are not going to be maintained on American soil subject to American jurisdiction."

Dubai Ports is not just a private company headquartered in the UAE. It is wholly owned by the UAE. Why would Bush, who has never vetoed anything, rise to issuing his first veto in 6 years in order to make sure that a country that produced 2 of the 9/11 hijackers would control our ports? Oh, but he said, the Coast Guard would still be in charge of security. As it is now only 1 out of 20 cargo containers that come through our ports is inspected. That would give the Coast Guard odds of 1 in 20 that they would be able to catch the nuclear components being smuggled in. Worse than that, the odds of detection go down precipitously for subsequent shipments. Remember they only have to not get caught once. We have to be right every time. So why even put the Coast Guard in that no win position?

This actually comes as no surprise given the fact that the Bush Administration is in charge. What have they done to secure our borders? The borders are as porous as ever. All kinds of contraband and persons are smuggled in every day. It's almost as if Bush was hoping for another terrorist attack. And why not? The aftermath of 9/11 was the high point of his administration. His poll numbers were at an all-time high. The country rallied around him as he stood tall in the saddle. It was his time of glory. Since then, the glory has departed. Everything Bush has done from trying to dismantle social security, to invading Iraq, to running up huge budget deficits, to the Medicare Part D drug plan, to his response to Katrina, to his failure to capture Bin Laden, has been a miserable failure. If there were to be another 9/11 style attack, the country would rally around Bush again, his poll numbers would go up and he would be in his glory again. No wonder he has left so many loopholes in our security. Chemical plants, for instance. The border and ports could be secured very easily with available technology. Why haven't they been?

There is the smell of money in this Dubai Ports deal. The close ties between the Bushies and Arab sheiks, caliphs, emirs and sultans are legendary. These are the same emirs who gave sanctuary to Bin Laden who was hosted in the UAE, the same ones that recognized the Taliban (one of only 3 countries to do so.) And why did the Bush Administration load up a plane with Bin Laden relatives immediately after 9/11 and fly them out of the country without even questioning them? And then there's the Carlyle Group from which George Bush, the father, is making billions from the War on Terrorism. Even as the planes smashed into the WTC George Herbert Walker Bush was meeting with Osama Bin Laden's brother at the Carlyle Group. Quote from the website- the Bush- Saudi Connection: "It’s passing strange that even as the hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center, the Carlyle Group was holding its annual investor conference. Shafig Bin Laden, brother of Osama Bin Laden, attended."

Not to mention that the Helmsley building located at 230 Park Ave in NYC (atop Grand Central Station) is owned by the UAE. The building was bought in 2005 for $705 million by the royal family of Dubai. So an Arab owned building sits atop the busiest subway and train terminal in the world. Right in the heart of New York City! Makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

Treasury Secretary John Snow, the chairman of CFUS (the Committee on Financial Investment in the US) approved the deal. Formerly CEO of CSX Corp., a freight rail company that sold its global port assets a year after he left to join the Bush administration. Who was the lucky buyer? Why it was Dubai Ports World, which put up $1.15 billion in that deal. Snow, reportedly, netted millions himself. It seems that Snow, who chairs the committee that makes the decisions on this sort of thing, has extensive connections to Dubai Ports and stands to enrich himself and his cronies by accepting this deal. That's why it must go through despite the fact that the Dubai banking system refuses to track Bin Laden's accounts, was the source of much of the funding for the 9/11 hijackers, refuses to recognize Israel etc.

But that's not all. David Sanborn, a former Employee of Snow's at CSX, oversaw the sale of CSX port assets to Dubai Ports, then went to work for Dubai Ports and recently accepted a job in the Bush Administration as Assistant Secretary of Transportation - Maritime Administration. Talk about your cronyism! Who needs outside lobbyists when you have a lobbyist right inside the Bush Administration? A mole so to speak representing the interests of Dubai Ports and those who will profit from this deal namely Snow and Sanborn themselves!

Meanwhile, trafficking in child slavery goes unabated in the United Arab Emirates. Boys as young as 4 are abducted and forced to become camel jockeys. And this is the country we are about to turn over management of our ports to, a country that still harbors terrorists, refuses to recognize the existence of Israel, has no elections, refuses to open the records of its banking system so we can track Bin Laden, home of 2 of the 9/11 hijackers and on and on. As Maureen Dowd writing in the New York Times said: "What kind of empire are we if we have to outsource our coastline to a group of sheiks who don't recognize Israel, in a country where money was laundered for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks?" Good luck, America!