Posted on 02/22/2006 6:19:30 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
Arab Co., White House Had Secret Agreement
Feb 22 9:03 PM US/Eastern
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By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
1d08c5bfc6d0@news.ap.org The Bush administration secretly required a company in 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. It chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
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.
"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If officials had predicted the firestorm of criticism over the deal, Lewis said, "they might have made them sound harder."
The conditions involving the sale of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. were detailed in U.S. documents marked "confidential." Such records are regularly guarded as trade secrets, and it is highly unusual for them to be made public.
The concessions _ described previously by the Homeland Security Department as unprecedented among maritime companies _ reflect the close relationship between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
The revelations about the negotiated conditions came as the White House acknowledged President Bush was unaware of the pending sale until the deal had already been approved by his administration.
Bush on Tuesday brushed aside objections by leaders in the Senate and House. He pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement, but some lawmakers said they still were determined to capsize it.
Dubai Port's top American executive, chief operating officer Edward H. Bilkey, said the company will do whatever the Bush administration asks to enhance shipping security and ensure the sale goes through. Bilkey said Wednesday he will work in Washington to persuade skeptical lawmakers they should endorse the deal; Senate oversight hearings already are scheduled.
"We're disappointed," Bikley told the AP in an interview. "We're going to do our best to persuade them that they jumped the gun. The UAE is a very solid friend, as President Bush has said."
Under the deal, the government asked Dubai Ports to operate American seaports with existing U.S. managers "to the extent possible." It promised to take "all reasonable steps" to assist the Homeland Security Department, and it pledged to continue participating in security programs to stop smuggling and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.
The administration required Dubai Ports to designate an executive to handle requests from the U.S. government, but it did not specify this person's citizenship.
It said Dubai Ports must retain paperwork "in the normal course of business" but did not specify a time period or require corporate records to be housed in the United States. Outside experts familiar with such agreements said such provisions are routine in other cases.
Roger that Bonfire.
Sincerely,
NSNR-THM
Yes I am on a war footing because we are under attack on so many fronts; from erasing any traces of faith in education or law, to buying our infrastructure, to influencing our politics, to outsourcing even the white collar jobs, to caving in to appease Islam in our schools, to overwhelming us with sheer population growth, sometimes I wonder if all this fuss over keeping a nuke out of a container is just a humorous diversion in the bigger picture.
LOL! You're awfully gullible. Oooo! UAE is going going to help us with investigations of the ports they're going to operate in the United States! Oooo! Top secret!
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.
Wow - so they're going to get audited like the average American citizen? I can see why they wanted to keep this a SECRET! LOL! Maybe they'll have to walk through a metal detector to get inside the White House, too.
Thanks.
I was wrong about this one:
7. The law requires the President not to be involved in or aware of this decision process until it is a done deal.
I am not sure of the exact verbage or requirements, but as far as I can tell there are legal requirements regarding the President's active involvement.
You're right, but sometimes you have to do what you think is right in spite of initial public opinion, and convince the public that it was the right decision (leading).
That job is much easier in this day and age with the internet, and when you have the facts on your side. The American public is smarter than they're acting right now, but they could come around once really thinking about the situation, not emotionally reacting to it.
Or, the American public is more juvenile than I thought, and we've all just witnessed the first acts of the Anti-Rove...or Bizzaro Rove!
I think this issue is as manufactured as the cartoon wars, something of manageable concern distorted to insight mobs. I’m sure many with various agendas will try to join in.
He said " you are us or with the terrorists"...
Until Osama Bin Laden crossed into Pakistan, then Bush equivocated...
Until Muqtada Al Sadr killed our boys and had thier bodies burned and dragged through the streets, then Bush equivocated...
Until he was afraid of offending our neighbors to the south by closing the two thousand mile long open door for al qaeda, Then Bush equivocated...
Until France and Germany and the UN were at the verge of being offended, so he ordered out troops to stop kicking in doors and picking fights with the bad guys in Iraq (with the single exception of fallujah) letting them get away to plot trouble for us later (very much like his father did in 1991), because Bush equivocated...
Until a country filled with terrorist sympathisers that doesn't even recognize the existence of the state of Isreal may be offended if they can't screen and hire hundreds of their own employees at ports here in the US, Bush equivocated...
Don't talk to me about integrity, my views have always been the same.
READ MY LIPS...Just like his father, Bush has equivocated. It would do him well to learn of courage from those he sends to war. It is the righteous claim of all military who fight for this country to at the very least know, as proof that thier effort and suffering was not in vain, that thier children will not have to fight the same war again.
Presidents who deny veterans this small comfort will stand before God in mighty judgement.
I spent all night last week with the 18 year old son of my buddy Walker who died when an enemy mortar scored a lucky direct hit on his tank. He had seen Saddam Hussein throwing a tantrum on TV and walking out of court with his lawyers, and could not understand why his father had to die, but 15 years later, this man who started it all is afforded such luxuries. This poor kid, who has known poverty, pain and loneliness his whole life has been denied justice because of polical equivocation. Still, he is signing up to serve.
I am filled with indignation. My guilt is overwhelming.
Don't talk to me about integerity.
Well I am still trying to sort this out. But there is no evidence of those things you accused President of. Could you elaborate on how the Chinese are entrenched in our ports and what functions they are performing.
read later
Huh?
You could learn more than a few things from that fine young man. And I will lecture you about your lack of integrity whenever I feel like it, Devil Dawg.
Your claims of my lack of integrity are not supported by facts in evidence.
You may address me as SENTINEL or Marine, Devil Dog is a term of endearment use by friends.
I will continue to defend this country no matter how much resistance terrorists and people like you throw up.
It is not unreasonable to demand that these things are solved once and for all (like WWII for example) on the battlefield, instead of endangering civilians due to political cowardice.
Hey PTBRS,
How convenient of the msm to leave out the true facts. The Hate Bush crowd is so laughable in their frantic and hysterical accusations.
President Bush will emerge unscathed for this msm hurled liberal soviet style moltov IED lie.
The liberals will franticlly run about the streets, ripping their garments, beating thier breasts and lamentating about being exposed for their anti-american traitorous actions.
I wonder where was the outcry when "peanut face carter" granted amnesty to cowards&traitors, gave away the Panama Canal, greeted the dregs of castro's criminals with open arms in Miami, Fl and freed the four PR terrorists?
Did they lift their voices to condemn shrillary secret health care plan and attendees payola list? Oh Hell No!!!
The democrappies just keep getting more hilarious everyday and completely out of touch with reality.
There are about as funny as Fatboy "Jabba the Gut" kennedy singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to a group of kindergarten children."
Thank you kindly fo the update on the intell.
As I See It,
NSNR-THM
I've earned the right to use "Devil Dog" whenever I want, Leatherneck.
Yep. Look what they did with Cheney's hunting weekend. LOL.
A secret op? Hogwash. This is nothing less than trading US port infrastructure for some hoped for information and cooperation. And no wonder its secret -- the details involve removal of otherwise routine security procedures.
From today’s Houston Chronicle:
"Under a secretive agreement with the administration, a company in the United Arab Emirates promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of its takeover of operations at six major American ports . . ."
Now someone please explain what the heck this quid pro quo is all about? As a condition to UAE ownership of US port infrastructure, they (the UAE) agreed to cooperate with the US? So they weren't cooperating before, and we had to extend a little carrot? And that carrot is trading domestic port infrastructure for information? Sheesh. Very reassuring.
" The U.S. government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions."
I hope you all are asking yourselves -- What The Heck? This is becoming some kind of bad joke. And if you are still taking the blasé approach to this, read carefully the following:
"Under the deal, the government asked Dubai Ports to operate American seaports with existing U.S. managers "to the extent possible." The company promised to take "all reasonable steps" to assist the Homeland Security Department.
The administration required Dubai Ports to designate an executive to handle requests from the U.S. government, but it did not specify this person's citizenship.
It said Dubai Ports must retain paperwork "in the normal course of business" but did not specify a time period or require corporate records to be housed in the United States. Outside experts said stricter provisions are routine in other industries.
Foreign communications companies with American customers are commonly required to store business records in the United States. A senior U.S. official said the Bush administration considers shipping manifests less sensitive. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the agreement."
I know. It's all ok because our "government" knows best and they (whoever the living heck they are) looked at this real close. So close in fact, that perfectly nonsensical exceptions to routine security procedures were removed.
What type of nonsense is it to require so-called retention of paperwork, but not require specific time-periods or that the paperwork be retained in the US? And what kind of balderdash is it to say that shipping manifests are less sensitive? So now the US Customs CIS program and the proposed Cargo Verification regime amount to a lot of hot air?
This is, frankly, madness.
Hey, maybe the deal is part of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
"And so people don't need to worry about security. This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America."
- President Bush, earlier today.
Because they apparently know everyone in our country is racist, and they knew that they would have to be held to a higher standard than China or Singapore because they are Arab.
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