Posted on 02/20/2006 9:53:21 AM PST by Stellar Dendrite
House Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King racheted up the rhetoric Monday morning on the Bush administration's decision to permit Dubai Ports World to control six major U.S. ports, saying the company is based in "the heartland of al Qaeda."
"By having a company right out of the heartland of al Qaeda managing those ports without being properly cleared or investigated, to me is madness," Rep. King told ABC News.
King cited "a number of reports about the port of Dubai itself, about weapons going through that port, to Iran, about corruption, and again about an al Qaeda presence. And I know there was no real investigation done on this matter."
King said he intends to ask President Bush to "freeze the contract [on the ports takeover], put it on hold, take no action till a full and complete investigation is done."
The Dubai company's ports takeover was approved last month by the Committee on Foreign Investment, headed by Treasury Secretary John Snow.
Over the weekend, both Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that the Dubai ports deal had been thoroughly reviewed posed no threat to national security.
During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," however, Chertoff said he couldn't discuss details of the review because they were classified.
Rep. King said approval of the controversial deal was granted because "bureaucrats" had applied pre-9/11 standards.
"This is a classic situation, I think, of bureaucrats who just missed the boat here," he explained. "This went through. They were applying business as usual [rules] and they forgot it was post-9/11."
Unless President Bush intervenes, the Dubai ports takeover is set to commence on March 1.
ping
King will not let this go, if the administration doesn't move to toss this - its going to lead to hearings, and the UAE lobbying efforts are going to be exposed.
any way you slice it - politically and otherwise - this deal stinks and the adminsitration needs to reverse it. this is a Harriet Miers redux.
I agree.
Like he didn't let go of his no vote on impeachment, which lead to irrelevance.
It won't. They will start calling us non-patriotic etc etc. Remember the insults hurled at us for not like Meirs????
How much do you get paid by the RNC????
More on this topic here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1582127/posts
Nothing.
My question then is, what in the hell do they have control over?
The only conclusion that I could come up with is:
THE MONEY!......and if they control the money....they control everything.
Note to the Bush Administration:
Kill the deal!
To the average American like me, it totally stinks!!!!!!!!
Somehow, someway, they have been in on the deal for years.
Thank you for your opinion, Ms. Cleo.
that's the vibe I get from this too - the this has been "promised" to the UAE by the administration for a long time, which is why the administration is reluctant to undo it quickly.
Rush is part of the DNC now too? LOL!
LOL
If it was a privately owned company held by Dubai citizens, that's one thing, and I wouldn't have too much an issue with it. But it is the Government of Dubai that owns the company. Sure, they may be friendly today, but what happens if Islamic radicals take over there, and then they become the de-facto owners? What then. That's why we should not allow government-owned companies to buy ports, even if the country is Canada.
The Democrats are just upset, since their pals the ChiComs aren't in on the deal.
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