Posted on 02/17/2006 7:51:42 AM PST by presidio9
Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns.
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Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.
"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement.
P&O, the company Dubai Ports World plans to buy for $6.8 billion, is already foreign-owned but the concern is that the purchaser is backed by the United Arab Emirates government.
The UAE company would gain control over the management of major U.S. ports in New York and New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami, sparking national security concerns.
"I will be working with Senator Menendez to introduce legislation that will prohibit the sale of ports to foreign governments," Clinton said in a statement.
Officials with the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a U.S. inter-agency panel that reviews security implications of foreign takeovers of strategic assets, has already reviewed the transaction and did not object.
Despite that review, some Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress urged the Bush administration to conduct a more rigorous review. They expressed fears that the UAE was used as a conduit for parts used for nuclear proliferation and that the local banking system had been abused by financiers with possible links to terrorist organizations.
U.S. officials have said the UAE has been a solid and cooperative partner in the fight against terrorism, and have praised the UAE for steps to protect its booming financial sector against abuse by terrorism financiers.
Money for the September 11 attacks was wired through the UAE's banking system, according to U.S. officials. Two of the September 11 hijackers were UAE citizens.
U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year but only about 5 percent of containers entering the United States are examined on arrival.
Similar concerns were raised when a China state-controlled oil company tried to acquire the U.S. oil company Unocal. After pressure from American lawmakers, the foreign company eventually dropped out of the bidding.
You have made your point six or seven times. You are starting to sound like you have an agenda.
He probably knows that. He used to plug World Net Daily but quit. But freepers picked up on it big last night; that's probably why he has been reading the comments on that subject here. Usually he refers to Drudge, Lorianne for awhile, nothing lately on the latter, etc.
This site is really good for picking up on the latest news stories.
Yeah, I have no idea who that would be. If I were you, I'd listen to Mark Levin over the internet. He is the most enteraining conservative in the business. Probably the smartest too.
Why was it ok for China to own all the shipping terminals that they own in the US? What's different about the UAE?
Sometime it is. When I posted this thread, my initial reaction was "Typical AP response to Hillary: She has no actual bill, and she's granstanding. But the AP is going to facilitate her taking credit for being against this anyway."
Two hundred posts later, people are still saying dumb things like "I find myself agreeing with Clinton on this one." Stop giving her credit for being a political opportunist already!
BTW, I know for a fact that this is why Rush avoids mentioning FR.
My agenda is to vent. I am flabbergasted that this has gone down this way with Hillary standing to gain....
My conclusions:
Bush Republicanism is largely incoherent and absolutely politically dumb.
How can Rove, Card, Bush et al allow this to happen. You cannot say, "I'll keep you safe, the Dems are out to lunch on security" and know that the only poll question you and your beleagured party lead on is natgional security and then let this happen. It is incomprehensible and really unhelpeful to one's partisan allies... not to mention self maiming. Can Team Bush possibly think that a Rat Congress will be good for it?
So the better question is, how much hay will Hillary and the Dems make out of this? And how far will GOP fortunes dip for the '06 midterms?
I don't know about Rush; he has mentioned it occasionally as has Sean; I get a sense that it's not regarded very seriously, like they want to detach themselves from it.
Do you think I like Hillary and her buddies getting any credit for this? Nyet.
Now they are saying Bush admin is going to take a black eye over this. I guess there was an article in the local paper. It takes awhile for people to pick up on this stuff. I would have hoped this would have been *the* topic of the day, but it's been local stuff mostly.
Our local talk host is pretty middle-of-the-road conservative, but he never did like Bush, but does not like the Dems at all.
As I have been saying from the start, this one is easy to turn right around on her:
Hillary: "I care about Homeland Security. I was among the first to suggest a bill that barred foreign nations from running our ports."
Republican: "Is that so? What was the name of that bill again? Oh? You didn't get around to actually introducing it? See folks: When it comes to Homeland Security, like a lot of other things, the Senator is fond of talking big, and never actually following up on anything. That's what happened here."
Relax. Give it a week. If this has not straigtened itself out by then, go ahead and attack the president all you want. Until then, you've made your point. Repeatedly.
President Bush couldn't have figured out that this would be a PR problem? Leaving aside the actual merits of the plan, Bush can't depend on his enemies to not seize on something like this, right?
Rush has mentioned it less and less. He still employs people who monitor FR for him. Hannity is a self-promoting grandstander who knows that a lot of his listeners are here.
She's already introducing it. Her and Menendez--which might help him in his NJ Senate race. So there are many Republican interests that are suffering because of this boneheaded port deal.
The thing I find most shocking is why didn't McCain (R, Media) take this issue and run with it??
No, she is not introducing it. She is working on introducing it. There is a difference. One of her handlers got an idea and they called a press conference.
I don't care, FR still gets news stories out there fast, and the consensus of comments often reflect the conservative pulse.
So how does Bush kill this before she is able to introduce a bill? I hope someone at the WH is investigating that.
I imagine she'll still hold a press conference and say "Chuck and I brought pressure to bear on the White House and forced them to flip flop on this. I'm glad they reversed their unwise course and put national security first."
I wish conservative Reps would realize once and for all never ever to agree with the liberal DemocRATS. They do nothing to support our great country.
I definately want to know more. I don't believe the press and very few politicians. What bothers me is the statistic that I read (only 1 in 1543 deals have been denied) and that it's been ok'd by a "secret" government panel. Why secret? There are Freepers a lot smarter than me and they'll keep digging.
Well now, don't look now but you are falling for an old trick which is to make noise to hide the source.
This has nothing to do with security.
This is HRC making trouble for President Bush while paying of the union thugs in her savings account.
Longshoremen don't mind co-opting the Brits but even John Gotti would think twice about double crossing an Arab.
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