Posted on 03/10/2006 8:16:05 PM PST by crushelits
President Bush said Friday the collapse of the Dubai ports deal could hurt U.S. efforts to recruit Mideast governments as partners in the worldwide war on terror.
Separately, in what may have been an aftershock to the failed transaction, a new round of trade talks between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates was postponed.
On Thursday, Dubai-based DP World backed away in the face of unrelenting criticism and announced it would transfer its management of port terminals in major U.S. cities to an American entity.
Bush struck a defiant tone Friday with the Republican-led Congress whose new willingness to buck him has taken its most dramatic form with the ports controversy.
The president said he was open to improving the government's method of reviewing such transactions, but he insisted his administration's approval of the deal had posed no security risk — and that the reversal could have the opposite effect.
"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," said Bush during an appearance before a conference of the National Newspaper Association. "In order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our friendships and relationships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East."
The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, is just such a country, Bush said.
Dubai services more U.S. military ships than any other country, shares useful intelligence about terrorists and helped shut down a global black-market nuclear network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, the administration says. This week, though, the State Department's annual human rights report called the UAE's performance "problematic," citing floggings as punishment for adultery or drug abuse.
The president said he would now have to work to shore up the U.S. relationship with the UAE and explain to Congress and the public why it's a valuable one.
"UAE is a committed ally in the war on terror," he said.
En route Friday to a presidential inauguration in Chile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed Bush. The failed ports deal "means that we are going to have to work and double our efforts to send a strong message that we value our allies, our moderate allies, in the Middle East," she said.
Thursday's action spared Bush an embarrassing showdown, which he seemed likely to lose, over the veto he had threatened of any attempt by Congress to block the transaction.
After weeks of questions from lawmakers of both parties about whether giving a state-owned company from an Arab country control of significant port operations could increase terrorist dangers, the silence from Republicans on Friday was telling. The only statements came from Democrats who sought to keep the issue alive.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., a chief critic of the Dubai deal, said lawmakers needed more detail on DP World's planned divestiture. It wasn't clear which American business might get the port operations, or how the U.S. entity would be related to the Dubai government.
"Make no mistake, we are going to scrutinize this deal with a fine tooth comb," Schumer said.
And the Democratic Party planned a mobile billboard in Memphis, Tenn., where GOP activists were gathering for a weekend conference, accusing Republicans of standing in the way of providing enough funding for port security. "Republicans owe the American people answers as to where they really stand," said party spokesman Luis Miranda.
Republicans, too, have said the deal's end does nothing to address the nation's continuing vulnerability at its ports, where the vast majority of shipping containers are not inspected. In fact, work continued on Capitol Hill on two fronts: reworking the process under which the government approves foreign investment and boosting port security.
Senate Homeland Security Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, promised a committee vote by the end of April on legislation to strengthen cargo inspections and port security. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., was readying a nearly identical measure for the House. Both bills have Democratic co-sponsors.
There were some signs the president's worries about the impact abroad were warranted.
Analysts said the developments could make cash-rich investors in the Persian Gulf, where there is the widespread belief that the furor was rooted in anti-Arab bias, wary of high-profile investments in the United States.
And the latest round of negotiations on a new free-trade arrangement between the U.S. and the UAE, scheduled for Monday in the United Arab Emirates, was postponed.
Both sides hastened to dispel speculation that the delay was the result of the ports controversy.
Neena Moorjani, spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record), would not directly address that question, but said it's not unusual for delegations to need more time to prepare. A UAE official said there was no connection, and that working groups would continue discussions by phone.
Me: Members of our armed forces are fighting side by side with Muslim allies against radical Islam.
You: Since when did some muslims qualify as all muslims in your view?
You missed my point.
Some Muslims are on our side(we both agree). We have lost less soldiers in our armed forces because of the Muslims who are allied with us.
Why penalize the ones that are on our side?
Why penalize our military by penalizing our Muslim allies?
Thank you. If you or I go thru a major transportation hub called an airport we are treated as potential criminals, but If a state owned business from terrorist central buys a whole set of transportation hubs its no problem. Well it is probably safe to say that if David "senile" Broder and GWB agree then we are not safe.
We *could* hijack this thread, no one would notice.
Dang it! My Flash is outdated , and I downloaded it and it said everything was okay, but the movie still won't play, and I'm too tired/lazy to deal with it right now...
But thanks, and I'm sure it was good!
:-)
You mean we didn't?
LOL
bookmark it, it's a good link, better yet, I'll send it to you via freepmail.
Groooovy.
It's just another ports thread, who'd really care, now, robotic mules, they are worthy of at least 7 400 reply threads.
Every Muslim did not fly into the WTC. Rational thought has to take over at some point. Let me know when it has for you and we'll talk.
Actually, what it may well prove to be is that the US portion of the deal was not all that lucrative. Giant corporations were able to keep prices at the ports low because they were able to make much more money at other ports and it ended up with an overall gain. What they lost on margin they were able to make up on volumn. Without the US ports as part of the deal, they can just as easily end up in Mexico or Canada and because of NAFTA can truck the stuff in just as cheap. Some poor US company will take the deal, but without the volumn to sustain it (i.e. income from both sides of the shipping) it's going to be hard to meet their contracts. Either they will go under before the contracts expire, or they will have to raise prices so much that the Mexico/Canada thing will be a much better deal for the shippers.
I think we need to start an OVERT port hijack thread operation.
We have both been here a long time and can tell when something is bad. There are going to be consequences for what has happenned and people may die because of it in the future because the U.S. is being viewed as an untrustworthy, reactionary country. Mindlessness.
Yep, he didn't work to your timetable so he must be a REAL loser. BTW, how many votes did you get last election?
Yep. Kind of surprising, isn't it. Notice how most of the old timers clear off the board when the madness hits?
Yeah, those basket makers and bead stringers are really tough competition, aren't they?
Three men: a project manager, a software engineer, and a hardware engineer are helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you three wishes, but since there are three of you, I will grant you each one wish."
The hardware engineer went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas.
The software engineer went next. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean.
Last, but not least, it was the project manager's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked the genie.
"I want them both back after lunch" replied the project manager.
He does indeed. And Charles Schumer gets an A+ in opportunism and hysteria. The pubbies in the House get an A+ as lemmings. Peter King and his ilk get an A+ in bowing to union pressure. I might have given them an F- in responsibility and real national security, but I feel generous about grades today.
I can see how you might have thought that, given it's not too far off the mark of what folks have been saying. Maybe a little more blunt than they strive to be because put in those terms it's indefensible to hold those positions.
There is a lesson here, taught once again as if it were needed: NOTHING is too low, too putrid, too dishonest, or too damaging to national security, to be off limits in their overweening desire to reclaim power in the interest of their leftist idology.
Or an attempt to hold onto power, as in the case of the Republicans.
I have never had such a low view of Washginton, granted, I'm only 28. But not even when Clinton was in office did I feel this complete disgust...rage...what the fools in Washington have done is amplified by the fact we ARE in a war currently and makes it so much worse.
Worse in that it's evident they do not consider us to be at war.
If they did, they'd never have handed our enemies license to justify the sterotypes against this country and WHY we are in the M.E. as a war against Arabs. Laughable when you consider it was THIS Congress preaching about our image in the world! As well, hurt REAL allies in the M.E.
All in pursuit of being able to sit in a cozy office and get fat off our tax dollars for another 2-6 years. Well, not from my vote this year.
I do think there is something driving this mess. Something or someone who wants Iraq to fail. Our efforts in the greater ME to fail. Do you see a pattern here?
One more...
A mathmatician, a physicist, and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume.
The mathmatician carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral.
The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement.
The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his red-rubber-ball table.
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