Karen,
Cargogate?!
There are one billion Muslims.
Peace will never be possible unless many,
or most, of these are anti-terror.
So, we seek to make friends. There is
little chance of a problem arising from the DPW operation of the ports.
Security will not be affected at all. The Coastguard, Customs, and Port police
will continue to do their job.
This is not to suggest security is
wonderful at present. But the sheer magnitude of the movement of goods makes
everything difficult – which has nothing to do with who operates the
ports.
Present ruckus is a mixture of election
year politics and self-serving from American firms trying to grab the job on
the cheap.
Politicians have a long term view of
things which extends all the way to next November.
Harry
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Karen Watters Cole
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006
5:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Futurework] Cargogate
The good news for
Bush-Cheney-Rove-Rumsfeld this week is the Dubai Ports World deal is that the
media is paying more attention to it than Snoopgate, Plamegate and Enron, all
running beneath the radar, radioactively.
Quoted!
Abramoff-scandal embattled Montana GOP Sen.
Conrad Burns called
Pres. Bush stubborn, saying the president's skull is “solid
granite.” In an interview today, Burns spokesman Matt Mackowiak
clarified the statement, saying Burns believes the White House should have been more forthcoming with the
details of a deal to allow a state-owned
company in the United Arab Emirates to assume control of
operations at 6 major U.S.
seaports. http://www.havredailynews.com/articles/2006/02/27/local_headlines/gop.txt
Asia
Times’ Thalif Deen: Why Bush is Stuck
on the Dubai Ports Deal: Dubai is one of the world's most prolific arms
buyers and a multi-billion-dollar military market both for the US and Western Europe.
The energy-rich Persian Gulf nation is currently taking delivery of about US$8.4 billion worth of military equipment,
mostly state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, ordered from the US ($6.4 billion) and France ($2 billion) over the past 5
years. The delivery of 80 US-built
F-16 E/F fighter planes - described as one of the biggest single arms packages
to a Middle Eastern nation and finalized in March 2000 - is to be completed in
2007.
And
this verrrry interesting MIC (military industrial complex) factor again raises
its head: "You could already see some UAE unhappiness over a
failed deal to buy Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft due to the US refusal to
fully transfer Link-16 secure communications technology," he added. The
Europeans traditionally have been more willing to sell equipment without
strictures, and well-equipped militaries with the wherewithal to buy high-tech
equipment are not going to settle for systems that cannot be used to their full
capabilities because the US
refuses to provide the full-up version, Baranauskas said. "Yet, Israel usually
gets such full-up versions. The double-standard here is noted and duly filed away
in memory, to possibly rebound in a later competition," he said. http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB25Ak04.html
Coast Guard not crazy about Dubai
ports deal Citing broad gaps in U.S.
intelligence, the Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration weeks ago that
it could not determine whether a United Arab Emirates-based company seeking a
stake in some U.S.
port operations might support terrorist operations. The disclosure came
during a hearing Monday on Dubai-owned DP World's plans to take over
significant operations at six leading U.S. ports. The Bush
administration said the Coast Guard's concerns were raised during its review of
the deal, which it approved Jan. 17, and that all those questions were
resolved.
"There are many
intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to
support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment"
of the potential merger, the unclassified Coast Guard intelligence assessment
said.
"The breadth of the
intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number
of potential vulnerabilities," the assessment said. The Coast Guard
said the concerns reflected in the document ultimately were addressed. In a
statement, the Coast Guard said other U.S. intelligence agencies were
able to provide answers to the questions it raised.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PORTS_SECURITY?SITE=JRC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-02-27-16-04-00
J-Post: Dubai Port World
boycotts Israel:
“US law bars firms from complying with such
requests or cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott
Israel.” http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395502196&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Note: The boycott against Israel is an important distinction between
P&O, the UK company that
currently operates 21 U.S. ports, and Dubai Ports World. So we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the ADL
(Anti-Defamation League) tells US to freeze DPW deal. ADL chief Foxman said that "even if
solutions are found for the other problems, the administration and Congress
must demand Dubai formally renounce its
participation in the boycott of Israel
in order to be worthy of a contract with the American government."
Foxman noted that, when the U.S.
was negotiating trade relations it Bahrain,
it had demanded the Gulf nation abandon its participation in the boycott of Israel. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/688591.html
Lawmaker:
Ports deal never probed for ties to Al Qaeda http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/01/port.security/index.html
