Posted on 02/21/2006 5:38:24 PM PST by kellynla
WMD: The quote above is that of a former UNSCOM member after translating and reviewing 12 hours of taped conversations between Saddam Hussein and his aides. So what's on the covers of Time and Newsweek?
Funny thing about dictators and tyrants: Very often they are meticulous record keepers. The fall of the Third Reich, the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein's Iraq all produced treasure troves of information. In Iraq's case, there were so many documents and records that even now only a small fraction have been translated and analyzed.
Among them are 12 hours of conversations from the early 1990s through 2000 between Hussein and his top advisers. They reveal, among other things, how Iraq was working on an advanced method of enriching uranium, how Iraq was conspiring to deceive U.N. inspectors regarding weapons of mass destruction and how these weapons might be used against the U.S.
The tapes were officially presented Sunday by former FBI translator Bill Tierney to a private conference of former weapons inspectors and intelligence experts in Arlington, Va. Tierney is an Arabic speaker who worked in the mid-1990s for the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), the agency responsible for overseeing Iraq's disarmament.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Stop acting like the real world is some episode of your latest favorite spook TV program. First off the "port" industry is one of the most (I would the most) regulated industry in America. Therefore no the UAE would not have the ability to bring "outside" personal in to do security.
Nor would they be able to "bypass" (spooky) certain containers that "carried the bomb"...blah, blah, blah.
The real world does not work this way. The same union workers working those ports today....will be there when/if this UAE company owns them....the same "security" personal will be there too.
That is how the real world works. Doesn't make for good 1-hour TV programs...I know. But nonetheless.
Why is everyone acting as if this port deal is the President's idea? I have not seen anyone discuss who is on the interagency boards that reviewed and approved this deal. Try looking that up, and stop acting like we live in a dictatorship.
[puts notch on gun]
8)
I'm not trying to convert ya. I just want, and I think Americans want, to feel like the President thinks of national security first.
But this has put a serious dent into that for me. His reason for standing by the U.A.E. company is hardly convincing, even as he says he wouldn't have done it without keeping national security in mind: "It sends a terrible signal to friends around the world that it's OK for a company from one country to manage the port, but not a country that plays by the rules and has got a good track record from another part of the world."
First off, that's crap about Dubai having a great track record. They're the BCCI nation of the Arab states. Second, I don't care what kind of signal it sends. Does a non-UAE company run the port of Dubai? Is Dubai going to open bids for its port services to us? Hell, no! What signal are THEY sending? National defense comes before bargain port operations! Third, as Michelle Malkin posted (other folks' words) on her blog, "[Bush] says he'll veto any congressional effort to stop the deal. Now, he decides to veto something. Not Campaign Finance Reform. Not immense pork barrel spending...Well we know what to add to bills that we want the President to veto now." What signal is BUSH sending, that THIS is where he chooses to threaten a veto and as clearly as can be?
And with Alberto Gonzales 'selling' us with lines like "This is not a question about port security, this is a question about port operation," it's hard to feel real confidence in these security "concerns" at all. As if running operations for six of the nation's largest ports is somehow like flopping Whoppers, anyone can do it, and if this operator doesn't work out with us, we'll just go to McDonald's port and get our containerized cargo shipped there.
I don't like being on Schmucky Schumer's side. But this is not good sense, and that Bush is standing resolutely by it is even worse. It makes him look like a guy who, when bought, stays bought.
Dream on brother!
Commie libs are exactly like Muslim extremist,in so much that there is no way to reason with them.
Everyone's acting that way because he can stop it, all by himself. And should. And hasn't. And HAS made a veto threat to protect the deal...one of the strongest--and only--veto threats he's ever made.
As to 'looking it up,' see here for more info on the CFIUS. What a joke.
Nobody is saying that Customs won't inspect the 5% of containerized cargo that it usually does. Nobody is saying the UAE will be running the ports like little Arabia, burkhaing women who enter.
No, where I am most concerned is that every port this company operates will be 100% spec'd by them, and they'll know it like the back of their hands. And one Muslim that info and an axe to grind--I know, a Muslim with an axe to grind, hard to imagine--could be trouble in a big way. Bringing the WTC down had infinitesimal repercussions compared to the impact that the shutdown of a single one of these ports could have.
You are simply wrong about this - All the same regulations and security standards that apply today (with a Brit company owning these ports) will be exactly the same with a UAE company owning them.
Who owns them means much less then how they are "managed" and those regulations dictating how ports must be managed will not change. In fact the UAE company has much more "in-house" stricter guidelines then does the current Brit Company.
But furthermore as I said...the same union employees working these ports today will be working it with the next owner...the same security teams will be working these same ports as well.
"Port security" is simply a much over-hyped "scare" tactic by those who want to act as if they are in the know...when it comes to national security. It works for the 10-second attention span of most of the viewing public.
I believe this to be the case. If we were to divulge all we know about Saddam's WMDs, and their fate, we'd probably have to invade Syria, and put Russia into the "Axis of Evil." We're not prepared to do either.
Complete coincidence. And yet he still never did anything about it.
What, you're still waiting for the MSM to show some interest in facts and reality-based priorities?
I admire your tenacity.
"Who is making t-shirts that say:
I WOULD RATHER GO HUNTING WITH DICK CHENEY THAN DRIVING WITH TED KENNEDY!!! ??
I WOULD LIKE ONE IF THERE IS SUCH A THING. CONTACT ME DIRECTLY, PLEASE."
Keep looking; I saw some advertised today on some other thread.
Of course not, but this IS what we should bt talking about. I never said I EXPECTED the MSM would be talking about it. I ain't THAT drunk.
I'm shocked that the government of Saddam Hussein would conceal evidence from UN inspectors. Shocked!
Yep and they are trying to pull the US into Iran.
Funny how this arses keep doing this crap. And the French as well. Sad thing is if Iran does get Nukes..France and Russia are within reach. Not the US.
Thanks for the ping!
The textbooks have already been written that GWB lied about WMD. The Pulitzers have been awarded to the media, the books have sold their millions of copies. As long as you and I live, the conventional wisdom will be that Bush lied about WMD, no matter what facts come out now.
[...Who is in the better position to crush Al Qaeda, ultimately, a US with NO allies in the region, or one that has good relations with a few nations there, which can serve as examples?...]
I like the way you are thinking. Bush has been misunderestimated his entire administration. I'm hoping this is another brilliant move in his big game. We won't know and he has no apologists... except us. If we could decypher the Bush code that gets him around the MSM, we could figure out what he's doing.
I tried to research the port management specialists and didn't find much. I don't know the "insider" language.
Thing is , no one will really care . Most Americans are alredy brainwashed by the MSM ( who will just ignore this completly)Facts and truth don't matter much to a dumbed down population . Yea, us Freepers are excited about the new tapes , a few others but the masses are ignorant it seems..It all won't matter in the long run sad to say .
[...As long as you and I live, the conventional wisdom will be that Bush
lied about WMD, no matter what facts come out now...]
I disagree. WE must carry this message. I don't care if my friends and neighbors
think I'm a kook. I will continue to speak what I know to be true. Besides,
I enjoy saying, "Ha! I was right and YOU were WRONG". I believe in the power of truth.
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