Posted on 02/24/2006 3:41:11 AM PST by saveliberty
By Tony Snow
Feb 24, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Washington was wracked last week by a spasm of Know-Nothingism, starring Democratic and Republican members of Congress whose hysterics confirmed the Founders' view that the president, and not the legislature, ought to handle matters of national security.
At issue was a takeover of the British shipping firm P&O by a United Arab Emirates holding company, Dubai Ports World. The transaction, first reported in the British press last Oct. 30, should have been routine. P&O leases cargo terminals at a half-dozen U.S. ports, and pays the longshoremen who load and unload ships.
The ownership change wouldn't have affected anybody on American soil. DPW had agreed to keep the old British management team (comprised of Americans) in charge and would have retained the all-American force of longshoremen at the terminals.
Nevertheless, politicians acted as if the Bush administration, which gave its blessing to the deal, had just exposed America's tender commercial neck to the glinting scimitars of Araby. Republicans behaved worst.
Rep. Tom DeLay denounced the deal as "outrageous." Sen. Bill Frist vowed to put the decision "on hold." Rep. Peter King warned darkly of "very serious al-Qaida connections." And Rep. Sue Myrick, in the most childish letter ever written a president by someone other than a child, wrote: "In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO -- but HELL NO!"
One problem: The United States didn't sell anything. Local port authorities still own the ports, including the cargo terminals rented by firms such as Dubai Ports. The Coast Guard still has exclusive responsibilities for security on the water. The Coast Guard, Customs Service, Border Patrol and local law enforcement still have the duty of maintaining security on the ground. The workforce affected by the change -- fewer than 400 laborers -- by law must have passed federal background checks.
The fulminating honorables would have known this if even one of them had bothered to contact a single person working at or running a port. When asked whether anybody at any port in the land had contacted him with a single security concern since the P&O/DPW deal was announced four months ago, Rep. King replied, "No."
The ignorance didn't stop there. Many critics of the deal also seemed to know nothing of the security cooperation between the United States and the UAE. To reject the deal would be to slap a government that has provided on-the-ground intelligence from the opening salvo of the war on terror. Gen. Tommy Franks notes that the UAE's much-criticized "recognition" of the Taliban actually enabled the country to do first-rate spying. The UAE provided maps and information for the opening invasion of Afghanistan.
The UAE since has put troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, in active and humanitarian missions. It trains Iraqi forces on its soil. It lets the United States conduct flights through its airspace. It has housed servicemen -- and women -- from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. It maintains the largest U.S. naval facility outside the United States, and Dubai Ports World performs contract service at the port.
It was the first government in the region to comply with the "container security" program launched by the Bush administration, testing every container for nuclear contamination. It now is working to develop technology that would permit the swift and thorough scanning of all containers. Its central bank has become quite active in choking off terror financing. It has rounded up a fair number of al-Qaida operatives and handed them over to the United States, and once -- long ago -- offered to serve as the agent for delivering Osama bin Laden from the Sudan to the Clinton administration.
If the United States were to kill the deal merely because Dubai Ports World was from Dubai, it would send a devastating message to allies in the war on terror: We don't want you, even if you have placed your citizens in harm's way, actively fought the terror cells, and committed blood and treasure to the war itself. This is nothing short of suicidal at a time when the Muslim world is a tinderbox and the United States has been tarred as Public Enemy No. 1.
The good news is that politicians appreciate the absurdity of the position. On Thursday, Karl Rove extended an olive branch, noting that the administration is willing to let Congress study the matter for 45 days, if necessary.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who got this riot started, quickly declared that he would like that. The White House knows that, in time, facts will annihilate the Know-Nothings, who have swilled a cocktail of ignorance and knee-knocking fear of Muslim Arabs.
The Rove proffer gives both parties a chance to crawl off the shaky limb before they make a tough situation infinitely worse.
Tony Snow is the host of the 'Tony Snow Show' on Fox News Radio.
Copyright © 2006 Tony Snow
No one here that I saw called anyone names.
If we agree to disagree, that's what good discussion and FR are all about. If you are not happy that some don't agree with you, please don't be unhappy about that. That's what makes us better at understanding issues.
I do wonder if you see that by killing this deal, you may be advocating something that goes out of your control to become Smoot-Hawley part deux, in the middle of a 21st century war.
Iran controls the East side of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The UAE controls the West. If the UAE gets no points for helping us apprehend an AQ bigwig in 2002, why should we bother with Afghanistan and Iraq?
:-) Yes and I totally agree.
:-) Good morning, maggief! Tony did write a great article today. (or yesterday but it published today???? Aaah! I am so confused! LOL!)
:-( Me too
"FR used to be a place where FReepers could have a good discussion and disagree and still come away friends. We just see more exceptions these days."
There certainly have been a number of bombs thrown into the conservative tent, as of late. We have had Schaivo, Miers, and now this. All of these seem to have set conservatives at each others throats. It is a good thing I am not of a susicious nature, or I would suspect someone of deliberately trying to damage to the cause.
Liberal are professional water muddiers. Unfortunately Congress must have been tooooo busy ear marking and writing legislation against profiling, to have a clue about the sale of this business from one foreign nation to another.
This has been like watching the political version of dumb and dumber.
Wow, a great article, but of course to the self called "true conservatives", Tony Snow along with Tommy Franks is now a traitor.
I don't think it's a conspiracy. But I do miss the good example of Ronald Reagan where he could bring us all together even though we disagreed without yielding on those principles which were most important.
Then those "true conservatives" risk a huge political loss. It's to the credit of Rush Limbaugh that Pat Buchanan was marginalized to represent only about one half of one percent of conservatives. We don't all have to agree at all times to be conservative.
You know what ticks me off about this whole thing? It's the way they jumped all over so QUICKLY while letting other important matter drag on for years.
Why can't they tackle the border issue with this much gusto? They always say that these things take time. I call Bullshite. They can get things done quickly when THEY want to.
I'm going to email a bunch of them today and point that out. I'm going to tell them that by not getting our borders secured they're putting all of our lives in danger and that it's disingenuous of them to jump all over the port issue while any ole terrorist and come strolling across from Mexico or Canada because after all this time, they're STILL wide open.
I wish everyone would write to their senators today and tell them to stop putting our lives in danger because of politics AND tell them if they are not up to the job of getting this border thing taken care of a.s.s.p., we'll be looking to elect people who CAN.
make that a.s.a.p. :)
You are absolutely correct in that they would have no control but it is not to say they will not share in security information as the administrators of these ports.
Additionally, as administrators, they have complete access to all manifests of cargo entering and leaving these ports, Just think how valuable information of military supply movements would be to our enemies.
Think about delays of these shipments that can be caused by the administrators of these ports.
Just think about the fact that at most 5% of cargo undergoes inspection and how easy it would be for a port administrator to manipulate or overlook "questionable" shipments and not make their presence known to our security people.
As for having confidence in Homeland Security, just think of the aftermath of Katrina and the person (Chertoff) who couldn't find his a** with both hands, running it. While you're at it, ask him how he and his boss, President Bush, are coming along on securing our borders.
Do you mean like the manifest of military supplies that go to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Those same military supplies that are currently going through Dubai and...DP World?
Or do you mean secrets that they couldn't already obtain from the commercial port operations they already have in the U.S. or the commercial port operations the Saudis already have in the U.S.?
It was the first government in the region to comply with the "container security" program launched by the Bush administration, testing every container for nuclear contamination. It now is working to develop technology that would permit the swift and thorough scanning of all containers. Its central bank has become quite active in choking off terror financing. It has rounded up a fair number of al-Qaida operatives and handed them over to the United States, and once -- long ago -- offered to serve as the agent for delivering Osama bin Laden from the Sudan to the Clinton administration.
Imagine all this. But then, we have no allies in the Middle East in the WOT. Bomb Mecca right now. [sarcasm]
We fought along the side of Russia in WWII as well. Some folks have forgotton that. And nothing convinces me the UAE is as bad as Stalin.
Thanks for the post. :-)
I can't help but wonder if all the talk about this deal is not informing our enemy of even more ways that we have been getting info on them. Look at how much info has been given about how much they are helping inn the WOT.
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