Posted on 02/22/2006 8:31:23 AM PST by Kaslin
WASHINGTON — President Bush was unaware that a controversial deal to sell shipping operations at six major U.S. seaportsto a United Arab Emirates-owned firm was in the works until it was approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.
After Bush repeatedly
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
(.....)
They appear to be asleep at the switch. And not just politically. From this article
The president made sure to check with all the Cabinet secretaries that are part of this process, or whose agencies or departments are part of this process," the spokesman said. "He made sure to check with them — even after this got more attention in the press, to make sure that they were comfortable with the decision that was made."..."And every one of the Cabinet secretaries expressed that they were comfortable with this transaction being approved,
From Donald Rumsfeld, who I understand was in theory part of the approving committee
QUESTION: Are you confident that any problems with security — from what you know, are you confident that any problems with security would not be greater with a UAE company running this than an American company?RUMSFELD: I am reluctant to make judgments based on the minimal amount of information I have because I just heard about this over the weekend.
Someone isn't telling the truth. If Rumsfeld is in fact on the approving committee, the process was deeply flawed. Obviously Congress should be looking at this.
It's no coincidence that some of these "soldiers" have extremely recent sign-up dates... and also happen to be bragging on another ideologically-opposed (at least under normal circumstances) forum about how they are hijacking FR threads.
That post makes a lot more sense than your first one, DUmmie.
I doubt it.
Bush went on the record saying he would veto any bill to block this deal, and now it turns it he wasn't even up to speed on the issue?
This raises some serious questions about just how the Bush White House is currently being run. The usual suspects will be along soon to tell me how wrong I am, of course - but we've seen a lot of poor judgement lately, and their best decision of late - Alito - came only after an outcry from the base.
"The President also admitted that he did not know Lonetta Menefee was promoted to regional manager of the Akron district of the US Post Office, despite the fact that the Postmaster General reports directly to the President!"
Yeah, that's about an equivalent situation....you bet.
I heard from the MSM they switched from Equal to Splenda in the WH cafeteria and Bush didn't know!
I spent time and money working for a Republican candidate afew years back supporting a candidate I felt strongly about. Once in office he turned out to be a stinking RINO and nearly bankrupted the state. I've had it with all these @ss holes that cave in as soon as the see a greenback dollar.Democrats steal theirs form the government and Republicans steal from the business sector. Plan and simple.
DoD is on the committee. Doesn't mean the representative (whomever it may have been) kept Rummy properly informed.
If you do not understand the political damage this has done to his base, you better go back and read about watergate. This is stupid on SO SO many levels it can't be ignored. Mocking someone for your ignorance of the effect does not make it go away. For a president to say he will veto anything that stand in the way of this deal when he has NEVER veto anything.... is just stunningly stupid.
True to be honest, I am so frustrated at conservative and Republicans right now. This knee jerk reaction to all this is troubling. The administration has part of the blame though on that. The events of the last month have inflamed the Conservative pundits, FR folks, and others that I wish everyone would take a deep breath and think this through. Gosh Poor ole Rush Limbaugh was accused of many of being a sell out and bought by UAE yesterday. This fascination with eating our young is troubling.
Who in hell is responsible for NOT notifying the president?
Right here, dude. I'm easy to recognize, because I'm often the only one breathing normally and citing non-blog sources, silly things like that.
"This NY Times story points the way to a fig-leaf:
'The administration's review of the deal was conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a body that was created in 1975 to review foreign investments in the country that could affect national security. Under that review, officials from the Defense, State, Commerce and Transportation Departments, along with the National Security Council and other agencies, were charged with raising questions and passing judgment. They found no problems to warrant the next stage of review, a 45-day investigation with results reported to the president for a final decision.
However, a 1993 amendment to the law stipulates that such an investigation is mandatory when the acquiring company is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government. Administration officials said they conducted additional inquires because of the ties to the United Arab Emirates, but they could not say why a 45-day investigation did not occur.'
There you go - the law may have required a 45-day review, so let's have it."
Same names, new crap.
A lot if they equate those two things.
Not saying that the reaction to the ports deal is necessarily justified...just that much of this was forseeable and should've been headed off.
Why didn't these "White House" sources just shut up about this?
Nothing like plumbing the depths of absurdity to make a point.
Wonder if coop would be safe to go quail hunting with? "Dammit, it's YOUR fault that you got in the way of what I was shooting at! I can't be expected to keep track of all the hunters in my group!"
Yeah, that's the ticket.
I believe that /s.
Impeach him right now! God help us all!
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