DU-BUY: YES OR NO?
HOW ELECTION POLLS SHAPE OPINION
NEW VIDEO FROM CURRENT

Like the Cheney shoot-athon, the Dubai company buying into US ports is on its way to becoming a joke. The Onion is out with some fictionalized person in the street interview comments responding to this question: “Many are voicing concern over Bush’s recent approval of a deal allowing a company based in the United Arab Emirates, who had ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers, to monitor security of select U.S. ports. What do you think?” (Note: no one has actually claims the UAE government had ties to 911 hijackers.)

“Blake Greenberg, Teaching Assistant “Great. We’ll be the laughingstock of the Muslim world once they get word of how many tons of flax we import each year.”

P.R. Williams, Dental Hygienist “I think that we should have a little faith in these people. I mean, they were gracious enough to take Michael Jackson off our hands.”

WHAT WE NEED TO PROBE

Even as I still believe the security concerns on this issue are exaggerated, the deal itself should be scrutinized because it illustrates the sleazy way the Bush White House does business.

First, there was the report that Bush himself didn’t even know the deal had gone down but was already defending it. Typical. But that’s on the surface. What went deeper was an earlier Executive Order mandating that publicly owned infrastructure projects be privatized. That has yet to be discussed.

I have heard some wild rumors like the deal is really about Washington using the UAE to invade Iraq before that country shifts from a dollar based oil economy to a Euro one. Evidence. None.

The conspiracy crowd is out with a flurry of suggestions that Dubai and the UAE are tied to bin Laden.

James Ridgeway offers this view in the Village Voice:

” WASHINGTON, D.C.-No matter what Bush and his supporters say, there is indisputable evidence of tight connections between the United Arab Emirates and leadership of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The country is the center of financial activity in the Persian Gulf, and has next to no laws controlling money laundering.Two of the hijackers came from the UAE and hijacker money was laundered through the UAE. The details are spelled out in documents in the government’s case against Moussaoui.

“The ties with bin Laden and the Taliban reach far back into the ’90s.
Prominent Persian Gulf officials, including members of the UAE royal
family, and businessmen would fly to Kandahar on UAE and private jets for
hunting expeditions, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2001. In addition
to ranking UAE ministers, these parties included Saudi big wigs like
Prince Turki, the former Saudi intelligence minister who now is ambassador to the U.S….”

See VillageVoice.com

Alleged hunting trips in the 90’s do not prove evil intent in 2006. do they?
The people who run the ports company say the UAE government has nothing to do with their company. One and two do not necessarily add up to five!

SECRET DEAL UNMASKED

As we go deeper into this morass we learn also of secret deals as reported by AP:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration secretly required a company http://www.gulfnews.com/home/index.htmlin the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future U.S. investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“As part of the $6.8 billion purchase, state-owned Dubai Ports World agreed to reveal records on demand about “foreign operational direction” of its business at U.S. ports, the documents said. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment.

“The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ports_security

The criticism of deal shifted yesterday from an almost exclusive focus on threats to national security to concerns about Presidential decision making and sanity. Maureen Dowd wrote: “Same old pattern: a stupid national security decision is made in secret, blowing off checks and balances, and the president’ s out of the loop.”

SECURITY THREAT? NOPE!

As for security, Forbes interviewed the westerner who runs the Dubai based company:

”A top executive of Dubai Ports World said concerns that his company would help terrorists enter the US are ‘nonsense’ as he defended its deal to assume management of six US ports.

“Ted Bilkey, chief operating officer of Dubai Ports, told CNN television that his company is already working closely with US security and military officials around the world, and that the United Arab Emirates government, which owns the company, has ‘nothing to do’ with its operations.”

NY TIMES SHIFTS VIEW

The New York Times now seems to agree on its front page today: “Most experts seem to agree that the gaping holes in security at ports have little to do with the nationality of who is running them.”

WHITE HOUSE SAYS INTELL CLEARED DEAL

Gulf News in Dubai quotes Scott McClellan at the White House as saying that the intelligence community had looked at the deal, which allows DP World to manage six US ports, and saw no national security threat. McClellan said Bush believes approving the deal was right.

“We shouldn’t be holding a Middle Eastern company to a different standard than a British company,” said McClellan, adding that a cancellation of the deal would send “a terrible message” to US allies in the Arab world.”

I have no confidence necessarily in the intelligence of US intelligence but, so far, I have seen little evidence aside from guilt by possible association that the Dubai company will compromise security any more than the British company did.

ISLAMAPHOBIA

That’s the way many in the Middle East see the US reaction to the deal. Rashid Saleh Al Oraimy writes in Gulf News”

”Even since Islamophobia became the active currency in the hands of US rightists, who invent a new bogus enemy every new day, the symptoms of such a syndrome (Islamophobia) have begun appearing in various segments in the West, whether open-minded or narrow-minded, liberal or fanatic.

“Islamophobia is rising and has become like an infectious disease that spreads amidst political and media circles in the West. In its editorial on Thursday, February 16, The New York Times, which prides itself as the first newspaper that speaks of US liberalism, called on the US administration to reconsider the decision that gives Dubai Ports World control over London-based P&O, which operates the Port of New York, and other US ports….

“Discrepancy and bad faith in the editorial can come under the famous saying: “Explaining an obvious matter makes it more complicated.”

http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/pando/more_stories/10020010.html

RIGHT PANDERS TO NATIONALIST SENTIMENT

Not to be outdone by demagoguery on the liberal side of the spectrum, the right-wing Accuracy in Media is demanding an investigation of Arab investors in US media companies. Oddly, this release came to me via a progressive PR firm.

”With the media raising a hue and cry about an Arab company managing U.S. ports, Accuracy in Media (AIM) editor Cliff Kincaid today urged a congressional inquiry into how Arabs are buying into major U.S. media companies.

“Shares in Time Warner and News Corporation (parent of Fox News) are being sold to powerful Arab investors without any national controversy,” Kincaid noted. “But with the media being a critical battlefield in the war on terror, Arab financial ties to Western news organizations must be thoroughly examined.”

“Kincaid said that he found it strange that the U.S. media have buried the news that Istithmar, an investment company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the same country involved in the port controversy, recently acquired a stake in Time Warner.”

Have these guys ever heard of globalization—the contemporary economic order in which US companies buy into companies elsewhere and they do the same in the West? Are they aware that News Corp was a FOREIGN Australian company financed by 256 banks worldwide, including money from Saudi investors?

They repeat the charge that a Saudi prince who is a News Corp investor “boasted” of controlling Fox News content at a Dubai Media conference. I was there and he did no such thing. He was complaining that the riots in Paris was being described as “Muslim Riots” when they were not religious but protests against police abuse and economic discrimination. He called Rupert Murdoch to complain. Murdoch agreed with him, and had the graphics used in the coverage corrected.

OTHER LINKS

Da’ud Mohammed sends along this related item:

”From Lou Dobbs: Michael Kreitzer says, “This is the first time since the 1800s that a foreign government, as compared with a foreign company, has actually tried to take control of the security at our ports.”

“One of the participants in the Lou Dobbs “ports story” was neocon Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for [Israeli] Security Policy, signer of the Project for a New American Century doc, and author of War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World.”

EARTHQUAKE ROCKS MOZAMBIQUE

MAPUTO, Mozambique -(wires)

A powerful earthquake struck Mozambique early Thursday morning, shaking buildings and forcing people from hundreds of miles around to dash into the streets for safety. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

HUMAN QUAKE IN NEW ORLEANS

Bill Quigley writes:

“Six Months after Katrina: Who Was Left Behind
The people left behind in the evacuation of New Orleans after Katrina are the same people left behind in rebuilding of New Orleans - the poor, the sick, the elderly, the disabled and children - mostly African-American.’

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206R.shtml

The hip-hop coalition announces:

”On March 1st, this country is going to put mothers and children, Katrina Survivors into the streets to become Americas new homeless, while trailers sink in the ground in Hope, Arkansas. President Bush promised to spend whatever it takes to ensure the recovery of the Gulf Coast region. He promised to ensure that the displaced would be able to return home. He has broken his promise to Katrina survivors and to this nation.

“We need you to come to Washington DC on February 28, 2006 to demand a stop to evictions, demand trailers for survivors and demand the passing of H.R. 4197.”

Regional Context from Institute of Southern Studies:

”SOUTH LEADS IN INCOME INEQUALITY: A recent study finds that income inequality has grown nationally over the last two decades. Six of the 10 states with the most inequality are in the South, and of the 10 states where inequality grew fastest over the last decade, five are in the South. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February 2006).”

How Original! Israeli minister calls Palestinians “axis of evil”

http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/feb/feb21-2.html

WP: PROTESTS IN INDIA

”Indian Scientist’s Visa Denial Sparks Outrage

“A decision two weeks ago by a U.S. consulate in India to refuse a visa to a prominent Indian scientist has triggered heated protests in that country and set off a major diplomatic flap on the eve of President Bush’s first visit to India.”

Washington Press.com