Posted on 03/08/2006 9:22:32 PM PST by PrinceOfCups
Abu Dhabi A seven-member delegation of American businessmen from the UAE will travel to Washington to brief US lawmakers who oppose Dubai's acquisition of six US ports.
The American Business Group (ABG) in the UAE is undertaking the mission and will express a strong response to objections by US lawmakers about the true character of the UAE. Besides lobbying for Congressional support, the group will also stress the importance of US-UAE relations that are critical for stability in the Middle East, said Kim Childs, executive vice-president of the group.
The move comes as legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives to block DP World's takeover of terminal operations at US ports, acting before the Bush administration completes a 45-day investigation.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis said the panel had attached an amendment to an emergency spending measure preventing DP World from assuming control of the American operations of P&O.
Childs criticised the US opposition to the takeover as "uninformed and inconsistent with American values" and urged President George W. Bush to veto any Congress legislation that blocks the deal. "The ABG deeply regrets what appears to have been an uninformed rush to judgement by some opponents of this transaction, as well as the inflammatory language that some have adopted to express their opposition," Childs said.
The seven-member delegation from the ABG will meet Congressional leaders as well as President George W. Bush in an attempt to convince them that strong US-UAE relations are vital for stability in the Middle East, said Childs.
On Tuesday, Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to block the $6.85 billion deal under which Dubai Ports World will take over the global assets of Britain's P&O by attaching an amendment to must-pass spending legislation for the Iraq war and hurricane relief.
"We do not believe the US should allow a state-owned company to run American ports," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, a California republican, told reporters in the US that port security legislation was still being drafted in the House and work remains with the Senate. But he added, "It is my intention to lay the foundation to block the deal."
The ABG, however, criticised the US opposition to Dubai's takeover of P&O as "uninformed and inconsistent with American values" and wants President Bush to veto any Congressional legislation that would block the deal.
"The ABG believes that these actions are inconsistent with American values of fairness and open-mindedness and fail to reflect America's long-standing commitment to the free flow of trade and investment among nations," Childs said.
The ABG, along with other American business councils in the GCC, has also placed an open letter to the US Congress in the Congressional publication Roll Call and individual members are writing directly to their Congressmen.
The House Appropriations Committee was expected to debate the ports amendment, along with the broader spending bill, later yesterday.
Lewis said his amendment to the emergency spending bill for the Iraq war and hurricane rebuilding would not mandate that only American citizens be involved in running US ports.
"The language is designed to deal specifically with the concerns that flow around the UAE question," he said, but added that the measure "could be interpreted to be broader than just a single country."
Bush has threatened to veto legislation that attempts to block the DP World takeover, but Lewis warned, "we could have a confrontation" with the White House.
But Kevin Massengill, a board member of ABG Abu Dhabi, said that any Congressional legislation should be vetoed by President Bush, adding that if the takeover is blocked it would send the wrong message to investors.
"The UAE is not an enemy or risk to the US. You should be able to tell your friends from your enemies," Massengill said.
Beijing can manage our ports*On March 18, 1996, Federal agents surreptitiously seized a Poly shipment of 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles in Oakland, California. These weapons had left China on February 18 aboard a vessel belonging to ... state-owned company, the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (`COSCO').
After smuggling large arms* of all sorts.
(Not merely Smith-Wessons).
Have we learned any lessons?
No, we punish the Arab "good sports."
Rasmussen reported a 19% approval rating for the deal yesterday, and the House Leadership will block it. Case closed Mr. President! It's not a religion of peace so much as a death cult.
From "Network", courtesy of Freeper FBD:
Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!
You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.
It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused...."
The big money is stepping up.
This is a hornet's nest put together by clinton. He has been paid handsomely for the advice he gave to put this deal together. (His wife knows nothing about this, she says)
ummm ok, so what is the solution, how does this get resolved, maybe SSA needs to make a bid to get P&O's old contracts..
My post in 47 is for you also.
Nothing sad about it. I'm a political conservative. By nature, I believe in a limited federal government, a conservative policy agenda and individual freedom. What we have today in WashDC is a bloated bureaucracy, that is out of control.
>>>>Maybe it's time for a few to decide a new Constitution ...
No, we just need to follow the Constitution we have today. The same Constituttion that has governed us since 1787.
>>>>I have to place my trust in President Bush and his Administration during his tenure.
When Bush is right, I support him. When Bush is wrong, I oppose him. That's what living in a constitutional republic is all about. Free speech and political dissent is alive and well in my world of the Founding Fathers.
and you just typed that on a computer made where?
how far are you gonna fight again?
you ready for a good old fashioned depression for you and yours just like the old days?
nope. Think I will roll over and play dead. No sense of fighting it. It is beyond my control.
Quoting an unknown defeatist who has since surrendered and died.....
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